118 degrees. We crossed the border back to Cali and the temperature rose.  We had spanned 100 degrees from the start of our trip. Hitting a low 18 degrees some nights in Yellowstone to 118 in Calexico.

Once we got into San Diego the temperature dropped to a beautiful 80 degrees. We arrived at our friend Stephen’s family’s place we were greeted by 9 pups. Or one pup – Buttermilk – and 8 other full grown dogs – Biscuit, Gravy, Daisy, Noah, Benjamin, Roxy, Abby and Papa. It took a little bit of time to get all the names straight, but once we did we were excited to have some much pup love for our days there. Stephen took us to the beach for surf lessons on our first day out. After surfing – we went to a local bar for drinks when we found out they do Goldfish Racing in the evening! …yes Goldfish Racing. We went back to the bar in time for the first round of races. There were about 25 goldfish in plastic cups filled with water and two Plexiglas lanes filled with water in the middle of the bar. You picked your fish, named it and were given a crazy straw. Once they said, “GO” you would have to pour your fish into the lane and blow bubbles behind it in order to get it to swim down the lane. First one to finish moves onto the next round. We of course entered in for the next round – Kim Karsplashian, Barry Ponds, and Ladainian Tomlinfin. We each made it past the first round but failed to get past that point. Nonetheless we had a great time! We finished the night with a round of karaoke at a nearby bar.

We spent one of our days swimming with leopard sharks in La Jolla (videos below). It was crazy to see so many of them back to back. Stephen’s brother and girlfriend came into town about halfway through our time there, which gave us a good group to go out with and gave me a girl to go shopping with! FINALLY. We ended up spending most of our days either at the beach or at the bars on the beach. The weather was great –except for one morning of rain – We closed out our trip there with a big cookout at the house. We are thankful for the hospitality that Stephen and his family showed us – housing us and feeding us for so many days and also holding onto some of the things we aren’t able to take abroad with us. We will be making a stop there on our way back to the states both to visit and pick up our things. We are anxious to go back there.