Red Sails in the Sunset

So this was a random evening adventure—at the last possible minute, we decided to pack a picnic dinner and head over to Dana Point for the tail end of the Tall Ship Festival.

The city was also at that time hosting the Parade of Elephants, some kind of traveling art exhibition raising funds and/or awareness about Asian elephant conservation.  I don’t know or don’t remember the specifics, other than that we saw a number of the elephants statues scattered around the harbor/wharf area and that they were very fun to look at.

    
Since we arrived quite late, after the end of the boat parade really, there weren’t any crowds of people, just flocks of pelicans scuttering about.

                  
These definitely aren’t the “tall ships” we were looking for, but with the sun sinking quickly they still look pretty nice.

       
Okay, so because we were tardy to the party, we didn’t get to see them under full sail but we did get to see a bunch of fairly impressive vessels making their way up the channel with the sun setting behind them.

          
And really, that made for a pretty great view.

                             
As spur-of-the-moment evening picnics go, I’d call this a win.

Heading back to the car, you can just make out that thumbnail moon over the harbor.

Now for some miscellaneous shenanigans.
     
Stories with Dad and dress-up fun with friends Gioia.

         
Round two of dress-up (same day) was followed by some pretty exuberant dancing.  What can I say?  My kids have style AND talent!

I love my goofballs!