Our Easter Vacation

Shortly after we got back from camping in San Jacinto park, Sean and Amy said they were going to Monterey Bay this past weekend since Sean had Friday-Monday off.  We thought that sounded great since Connor and I have spring break this week, so we weren't in a hurry to get back.  So our crew headed out Friday evening and stopped at a hotel in Camarillo.  Early Saturday morning we headed back on the road.  We stopped in Solvang for some ebelskivers and some window shopping.  We went into a toy store and came out with an inexpensive toy for each child to play with the rest of the car ride.  Once back in the car we took off again until we finally came to the coolest playground ever!  The Dennis the Menace Playground.

Chloe and Connor go down this fun slide

 Connor climbs the ladder

 Connor is ready at the top

 There was this fun suspension bridge

 Basically there was something for children of all ages.  There were multiple play structures designed for different ages.  Chloe and Connor wanted to play on the 7-12 year old structure the most.  I don't have pictures of Chloe on the twisty slide, because Peter was at the top and I was at the bottom to catch her.

Connor said his favorite part was the swings-no picture, but they were your average run of the mill swings.  There was also a rock climbing wall.  We met up with Sean and Amy here at the park.  Sean tried to convince Kirk to climb the rock wall, but he wasn't interested.  Sean really wanted to climb the wall.

As we left the park, Connor got eaten by a lion while trying to get a drink of water.

 

Our next stop were some tide pools.  We found hundreds of these jelly fish washed ashore. 

 They were everywhere!

 It was crazy windy outside, so we looked kind of quickly and then headed back to the cars.  Our next stop was Fisherman's Warf for some food.  The guys all tried clam chowder from each storefront that gave it out.  A lady overheard us all talking about where to eat and she told us to go somewhere in particular (can't think of the name) and they would give us the best clam chowder ever.  We started walking there and she went ahead and asked if there were any tables available for her 8 friends.  I stared at a sign that said something along the lines of crying children are not allowed in the dining room so as to not to disturb guests.  I didn't think this was the best place to be with 4 tired, cranky children.  In the end, they didn't have any room, though they checked another store as well.  We decided to buy our stuff to go, then headed to the hotel.  We ate our dinner, the kids played in the rooms (they were joined together) and then we eventually all went to bed.

Sunday morning was Easter.  Kirk and Heidi were up and so the Easter bunny got up and put some goodies in Connor and Chloe's baskets.  We decided to just bring candy with us and left the books/toys at home.    I could hear the joy in Kirk's voice as the Easter bunny brought him underwear and socks...it was pretty funny.  While Connor slept, he blurted out, "Dishwashers don't watch movies."  Peter and I laughed and wondered what he was dreaming about.  Shortly there after he woke up and eventually saw a couple of baskets sitting on a table that had some pretty neat candies in them.

After breakfast, we headed to the Monterey Bay Aquarium, with pretty much everyone else who thought Easter would be a great time to visit the aquarium...it was crowded!  We did everything that we could/wanted to and then stopped for lunch/dinner around 4.  Then Sean, Amy and crew went back to the aquarium for one more hour before they closed.  Peter and I went shopping along cannery row. 

 None of my pictures here turned out well...these two are of the big tank and the fish are being fed.

 These are the sardines being fed.  It was pretty awesome to see how the big fish got out of the way when the entire school of fish came up for food.

After the aquarium we went back to the hotel to soak in the jacuzzi.  After warming up, we went back to our rooms to find that some eggs had been hidden in Sean and Amy's room and they were waiting for Connor before they started to look for them.  Inside them were money.  Connor has been big into money lately.  About a month ago we emptied piggy banks and rolled coins.  Then we went to Target and Connor spent some of his money on a Lego garbage truck.  He keeps asking about when we'll take the money cans (recycling crv) to the recycler and get money for them.

On Monday we started our adventure back home.  We stopped at Point Lobos State Park-A must see!

The water was so crystal clear it was amazing!

 Family photos

 Kirk complained that his knee hurt, so Sean carried him a little bit.

 More beautiful view

 Beautiful water even with a ton of seals/sea lions all over the shore.

 

After this we basically said goodbye to Sean and Amy.  They needed to make it all the way home, while we were stopping for the night is San Luis Obispo.  We continued the trek slowly and stopped at a few scenic overlooks to take pictures.  We ran into Sean and Amy briefly at McWay Falls, but didn't see them once we parked and made it to the trail.  After seeing the waterfall, we went to Limekiln State Park and hiked about a 1/2 mile through poison oak to see the 100 ft waterfall.  It was worth it, but the poison oak all around was a bit unnerving.

The waterfall came down both sides here

 Though these little waterfalls toward the bottom were pretty spectacular too.

 My goofy little kid climbed up to the upper viewing area with me.  It was a lot easier to get up than it was to get down.

 I wish this wasn't blurry, but Chloe is having the time of her life crossing the stream.

 After Limekiln, we went to see the elephant seals.  They were mostly sleeping on the beach.

Back in the car we made our way to our hotel and then walked around the corner to dinner at the Apple Inn.  We were too full from dinner, that we took our dessert and our leftovers to go and then put them in the car to keep cool overnight.  There wasn't a fridge in our room.  To help keep the car extra cool, we cracked the windows.  The next morning we went to breakfast and as we were walking back to our room it started raining...then it was total downpour and guess what?  The windows were still cracked open.  Peter rushed to the car to close the windows, but the car seats were already wet.  Then he rushed to put Chloe in her car seat, except Peter managed to put her in Connor's seat (I do give him credit though, we had just switched the car seats to different sides of the car and it was a complete down pour.).  As the rain let up a little bit, each child was successfully strapped into the proper seat and we were on our way home.  We made excellent time and were home in about 5 hours.