CalifornIA

Back in the good ol' US of A, just in time for the Fourth of July. For the next month I'll be staying on my family's farm aka The Ranch in Bakersfield, CA. The Ranch has become like a second home to me. I've probably spent ten out of the last fifteen summers here. Although I'm still 3,000 miles from Beverly, it still feels good to be "home." I'm staying with my uncle George and aunt Sheila, my cousin Colby, his wife Katie, and their twins, Joe and Carmela - age 7. They treat me so well here!

As soon as I got to the Ranch we packed up the car and headed to Katie's family's beach house in Cayucos for the holiday weekend. We spent two full days on the beach and somehow I made it out alive without a sunburn. We took part in the sand castle competition which is a tradition. Our theme was "Cayucos is Heaven 2011" and we took home a trophy for honorable mention. After the sand castle competition we watched the parade where the kids loaded up on gutter candy. Then we spent the rest of the day on the beach, finishing the night off with one of the most impressive fireworks displays I've ever seen.

Back to the Ranch for a night, and today we're heading up to their house in Mammoth Lakes. Tomorrow we'll spend the day at Yosemite where I hear the falls are just gushing after a record year of snow. After that I will finally spend more than three nights in one city for the first time in nearly four weeks! (I think... could end up squeezing another trip in before tomato harvest).

Bene and his dog Blue should be on their way across the country by now. They are due to arrive on the 11th and we'll be starting the tomato harvest on the 13th or so - the latest harvest I've ever worked. There are lots of details on the harvest in previous blog entries from 2009.