Andrea & Annkathrin

My cousin Andrea and her daughter Annkathrin spent two weeks vacationing in California recently, so we got to spend some time together. Andrea is a doctor in Germany, living in a small town not far from where my mom grew up.

Sonya played tour guide and took the two of them and Karsyn down to Southern California to do the Hollywood, Beverly Hills, Disneyland thing. This was Karsyn’s fourth trip to Dland in the past two years. Not bad when you’re six I suppose.

Sand Crabbin

Annkathrin is on the verge of becoming a teenager, so she wanted to go to Hollywood to see if she’d run into Johnny Depp on the street. Unfortunately for her that commie pinko lives in France (lucky for all of us), so she’s actually been closer to him than we have this whole time. She did get to take a picture in front of his hand & foot prints at Mann’s Chinese Theater in Hollywood.

When the foursome returned, we spent some time at the beach. We did Manressa in the morning, did lunch in downtown Santa Cruz, then took the kids to the Boardwalk to end the day.

I couldn’t believe how nasty the Boardwalk had become. It was filthy. The people all looked like they were on weekend leave from Folsom. It wasn’t the same Boardwalk that I knew as a kid.

Hang Ten Dude!

The kids all seemed to enjoy it though. They rode a few rides and soaked in the carnival atmosphere.

I heard that Andrea and Annkathrin went back for more later in the week with my mom and sister. It was a busy couple of weeks for them, visiting a number of relatives and seeing the sites. Their stay seemed to fly by, ending far too soon. We’ll just have to take a vacation to Germany as soon as the house is in order.