Beach Day and the Freeman Beach House

We had a long drive today...Monterey to Garden Grove. We had decided we were going to have a beach day after our long drive.

We checked out of our hotel and began our long drive down to LA. I have to say the mapquest phone app has been a bit frustrating to us. Many times this trip it has had us turning right only to make a U turn at the next intersection. Today it wanted us to drive north a couple of hours before driving south to LA. Good thing Bryan checks the directions before we take off so we can ignore it when needed.

We made it to Huntington Beach by the early afternoon. It was really overcast and windy but the kids were determined to get in the water. We found a spot, paid for parking, changed clothes and got in the water. It wasn't too cold and the kids jumped right in.

Ethan tried body surfing and Courtney jumped over the waves. They had a great time!!

We had taken some sports things to play with - a frisbee, volleyball, etc. and the seagulls kept trying to steal our stuff. It was pretty funny watching the bird peck at our ball. 

After about 2 hours in the water, we packed it up, changed clothes and drove to the Freeman Beach House (that's what we call Kristina and Mark's house). They are so nice to let us stay at their house when we are passing through.

We had dinner, which my kids loved, then the kids showered and got ready for bed. They are on "vacation time" so they got to watch tv a bit before going to bed.

Bryan and I stayed up with Mark and watched tv while we waited for Kristina to get back from a girls camp planning meeting.

Then we went to their hot tub for a while before going back and getting ready for bed. They are always fun to hang out with! 

Tomorrow morning we head home!!

Bubba Gump's

Ethan loves seafood! He has been looking forward to eating at Bubba Gump's in Monterey all vacation!

He ordered Shrimp Heaven and he was in heaven!!

Courtney had chicken strips. ;)

Monterey Bay Aquarium

After the Mystery House, we drove to Monterey to the Monterey Bay Aquarium. I was nervous that the kids would be too tired after the morning tour, but they were super excited for the Aquarium.

We saw so much! They saw the kelp forest, sea horses, sea stars, penguins, jelly fish, sharks, shrimp, lobster and a ton of other fish.

Ethan got to pet a sting ray (without the stinger).

(I got a great picture of him and the sting ray on the camera.)

We saw seals.

The kids played games.

They especially liked the touch pools where they could touch fish, hermit crabs, kelp and sea weed.

After getting a prize at the gift shop, they were ready to go. It was a great day with the fish!

The Winchester Mystery House

I remember going to the Winchester Mystery House when I was a kid so I wanted to take the kids there. I had found a hotel where they gave us 2 free tickets and I bought 2 online before we left, so we were set!

This is a crazy house where doors open into walls and stairways go into ceilings. If you don't know the story behind the house, just google it.

You aren't allowed to take pictures inside the house but it was cool inside. Although it is crazy, the windows are beautiful and a lot of the elements in the house are before their time (showers, radiant heat in the floor, light switches, for example). Everyone seemed to like the tour.

After the tour, we went to the gun museum to see all the old guns.

Then we walked around the grounds.

It's a cool house, in my opinion.

The California Academy of Sciences

The last stop for us in San Francisco was the California Academy of Sciences. Since we were leaving the area after the Academy of Sciences, we drove our van. There were A LOT of people there so parking was a bit tricky. Bryan dropped us off in front while he went and found a parking spot.

This was another really cool place. The kids had a blast going through all the displays. We got to go in a rainforest habitat here spiders crawled free and butterflies were everywhere.

We got to feel the San Francisco earthquakes in a simulator. We got to see an America's Cup sailboat. And a lot of other things. It was really fun but the kids were pretty tired. 

Courtney was ready to go.

So we loaded up and drove to our hotel in San Jose. We checked in, went swimming, ate dinner and then went to bed.

It was a busy day!!

The Exploritorium

This place was so cool!! And it was absolutely huge. 

We got ready, ate breakfast, caught the muni and went to the Exploritorium. It was a huge museum/science center where you could play and learn things.

When we first walked in we saw this:

It was a toilet made into a drinking fountain. The kids thought that was cool. They had experiments to explain all kinds of science things. They had fog machines, optical illusions and sense perception displays. 

They even had a display that would move and follow your movements. It was weird!

Courtney even got to try and make a plane and put it on top of a wind tunnel to see if it would stay up.

After a couple of hours the kids were tired so we ate a snack, loaded back on the cable car and then caught a bus to our hotel.

I have to say that if we had had the muni experience we had today, yesterday, we would not have use it so much. The cable cars/buses were really late and the drivers were so rude today. But we are done with them so it's okay.

Giants Game!!

When we knew we were coming to San Francisco we decided we would have to go to a Giants game. I had found some tickets on stub hub a few months ago and so we were set. 

We rode the muni bus and then the tram to the ballpark and we got more and more excited the closer we got!! The place was filled with orange and black and we felt at home (or at least that is what Ethan said).

We got to the ball park and took some pictures before going in.

Once we passed the bag inspection and the metal detecting wand (which went pretty quickly and Ethan thought was cool), we went into the park. Now, going to a Giants game isn't like others I have been to. People show up, like us, a couple hours early to experience it. It was crazy how many people were there so far before the opening pitch. 

We found our seats...way up in the nosebleed section. We were one row down from the top but I loved it because we could see everything going on.

Bryan took the kids out to get dinner at a vendor and they loved it.  They each got dinner and then a treat. Ethan ate chicken strips and garlic fries, Courtney got the same thing with just regular fries, and Bryan got a cha-cha bowl with pineapple salsa. We saw a show on PBS a few months ago about the food at AT&T Park so we were excited to try some. Courtney got her treat of cotton candy.

After a while the kids got kind of bored so Bryan took Ethan for a walk and Courtney and I goofed off.

Actually, Courtney goofed off while I took pictures. ;)

The game started and the kids, especially Ethan, got into the game. Bryan had a score keeping app on his phone so they got to use that. I was proud of the kids. It was cold and windy and we only had light jackets. Ethan and I went out in the 4th inning to get our treat and we got hot cocoa from Ghiradelli. It was so yummy and Ethan now understands my need to go to Ghiradelli Square.

The kids did wonderfully but when the game was tied at 2 at the end of the 9th inning, we decided to go back to the hotel. The ride back was easy and we it back in great time.

The kids went to bed while Bryan and I stayed up watching the game in tv. I think I fell asleep at midnight but the game didn't end until around 12:30 am, I think, with the Giants losing in the 16th inning!!

What a FUN FHE!!