We met Jonny's family for breakfast at our Irvine hotel on the morning of December 31, 2022. We planned to join up with Camille's family later in the day, but to first check out the Richard Nixon Presidential Library in nearby Yorba Linda.
We arrived at the Nixon Library an hour before it opened. We looked for a park to while away an hour.
Jonny had brought plastic airplanes from Christmas. He put them together for Sam and Henry while Thomas and Jay tried out the jungle gym.
Our random hour at the park turned out to be one of the funnest parts of the day. as the boys mastered their new planes.
The Nixon Library was open when we returned, and we spent a fascinating hour or two there.
There were fascinating displays about Nixon's great achievements in foreign affairs, such as re-engaging with China, as well as his fundamental defeat, in being impeached as a result of his cover-up of the Watergate break-in. The displays quoted Nixon's apologies over Watergate and his recognition that it was a betrayal and a tragedy. David paused to examine a slab of the Berlin Wall.
Sam and Henry stood in Nixon's Oval Office, recreated to scale, with the furnishings Nixon chose.
It was a rainy day, but we could tell that the grounds outside were beautiful.
We joined Camille's family for lunch at a great taco bar in Newport Beach.
The fish and carnitas tacos were superb!
We first met the Eberts at a surf shop near the taco bar. Shopping is, I have heard, an important part of the Newport Beach experience.
Someone told Dave his beloved sneakers were "Dad shoes." On the spot, he bought a more stylish pair.
We then moseyed, with the Eberts, along the main drag on Balboa Island, stopping for the signature delicacy, "Balboa bars." Balboa bars are thick slabs of vanilla ice cream dipped in chocolate sauce and then rolled in nuts or candies. Chocolate-covered frozen bananas are another local treat. Jonny's and Camille's families and Mike later got together to play board games, as Dave and I crashed at the hotel.
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