Something’s up… It’s April Fools Day and the day is nearly over and no one has even made a feeble attempt to pass off a gag or practical joke. I don’t trust my family. Just because I’m paranoid doesn’t mean they’re not planning something.

This morning we did the continental breakfast again before heading back to Universal for a few hours. We did, after all, have two-day for the price of one tickets. Mostly we just had to go on the studio tour to see King Kong one more time and perhaps another trip on the Mummy for good measure. We had to leave by one in the afternoon to get to our rental around 4.

The entire family converged at the house at the same time and entered the house to a barrage of “Ooos” and “Awwws.” The three-story house, situated right on the sand, sports eight bedrooms and three decks-two with hot tubs. We spent the next half hour exploring every nook and cranny passing each other on the stairs and shouting out to each other what we had just discovered: “There are two washers and dryers on this floor and one on the bottom floor!” or “This bathroom has a walk-in shower!” or “This place is cool!”

We had no plans for the night except to catch up with each other and decompress. Mike and Jody, Beth and Robert and Sara and Wes had all driven from the Sacramento area in a straight shot, a Herculean effort compared to Lisa and I driving from LA or Les driving from Mission Viejo.

A short walk down the beach found us at a small sand cliff where the kids took turns jumping off into the soft sand below and then trying to climb back up the face again. Patrick’s favorite part of the day was the Jacuzzi while Kaitlyn loved finding the sea shells–and, oh yeah, the Jacuzzi. She loves Patrick.

When Wes was asked what was the most eventful part of the day, his reply was, “Getting here was pretty eventful,” then later relented that Wyatt and Hunter were pretty good on the drive. It was amazing that all of us were within a mile or two of each other on Interstate 5 save Les who arrived an hour earlier to poke the clean-up crew and get us into the house on time. Mike and Jody even passed Beth and Robert and Sara and Wes at Harris Ranch.

The rum drinks flowed freely and once again the entire house was asleep at an entirely respectable hour.