Cali - Day 4 - Big day! Loved this day!

Loved this day.
Well, hate the traffic. Good lord.

I started the day with a run on the beach. I ran on the walk and on the loose sand. (Geezus, I have a lot of work to do before October!)
It was a good run, though.

Then, Meatball and I ate some breakfast while Bub and Peanut stayed in the room. What a cute breakfast date!
(And, yes. That's a LOT of ketchup on his scrambled eggs.... We buy a lot of ketchup...)

We packed up to go to LA. We stopped at a skate park first, and my childhood bestie, Shellie, stopped by for a few minutes. I can't believe that I didn't get a picture with her! Oops! Well, the short version: she looks lovely, and I look fat.
We took our time to get to LA - partly because we had time, but mostly because traffic is awful! OMG!

We stopped in Newport Beach. I like it. Fun little surf town.
I had gotten a screaming Groupon for a whale watch (like $15 total for four of us), so we got on our boat and took off.
The houses in Newport Beach are fun, and Peanut is all about finding super cool houses. These pictures are for him!

Then, the real fun began. This was only a two hour excursion, but it was packed with awesomeness!
First off: seals

Next: common dolphins

(Seriously - look at the water coming off of the dorsal fin in rings! So cool!)

Then, something relatively rare in this area, Risso's dolphins. Only two or three of them, but cool. Look at all of the scars on this dolphin!

Probably more photos than necessary, but it was great!
Now, a humpback whale. He was feeding, but not very seriously because he was playing, too.

Here's where he got super playful with two big tail slaps - so cool!

Bub even got to see him do a small breach. We were headed back to shore, and we were quite a ways away, but she still saw him breach. Bummed that the rest of us missed it!

Before we left, he gave us a little goodbye.

And, what do you have for dinner after watching a whale feed? Fish tacos, of course!

It's a good thing that we got so zen and relaxed while watching whales because the traffic on our way to our next place was AWFUL. Completely awful!!!
Peanut thinks that we're moving to LA when he gets famous. No. We are not.
Once we got there, we were so wiped that we stayed put for the night!

PS - I didn't take the pictures of the whales/seals/dolphins. The company employs a professional photographer. For $20, they e-mail the photos to you. Trust me - well worth the money. My phone photos were nothing to write home about. I wouldn't have written to the prison with my photos!

California - Day 3 - meh....

First thing, I got up and went for a short run around the business district that the hotel sits in. For a business district, it was very lovely! SLC's business districts are awfully dull, but San Diego (Vista, actually) is so nice!

Our intention was to go to Legoland immediately, but the siren's call of the ocean was just too much. We just had to go.
After the night before, the boys knew a bit about how to judge when the waves are going to get you all wet. Bub had forgotten everything that she learned the last time we went to the beach. She wouldn't listen to me, and that resulted in what you see below.

Then, the boys started playing with a cute kid from Austria. They had a great time just playing in the waves. While watching them have a good time, I realized that my kids were playing on the same beach that I played on when I was the same age! (It was the trip that we went on with Colleen, Shellie, Stacy, and Clint where Stacy got lost every ten minutes.) What an awesome realization that was for me. My mom was a bit younger then than I am now, but still - pretty cool!

We were warned prior to going to Legoland that the boys might be a bit too old. They were just on the verge. Some of the rides were definitely for littler kids, but some were awesome. Really, the coolest stuff are the sculptures! I only got pictures of the Star Wars stuff, but it was all fantastic.
Even though they were a bit too old, we still had a super fun time. (Next time, we'll go to Universal or Six Flags.)

California arrival - Day 2 (aka: The Great Fruit Cover-Up of 2017)

Knowing that it was going to be HOT, HOT, HOT, we intended to get out of Vegas early. Instead, we spent at least an hour trying to get coffee.
We like to use time saving devices in order to be more efficient, but are we - in fact - more efficient? Case in point: The moving "walk"way. We sat on it instead....

Mmmmmmmmmmmm........... coffee.
(I don't condone the consumption of caffeine by anyone - especially 10yr olds - but here we are, nonetheless...

All tourists to SoCal must stop at Baker, right? Especially on a day with super hot temps, right?
You can't see it below, but the monster thermometer shows the temperature at 109* at about 9:30am. Ridiculous! We used the potty, bought a bumper sticker (tourists!), and watched the clerk create fake snow - the only "snow" she has ever seen first hand....
Can you see our skinny little people at the base of the thermometer in front of the bushes? Someday they'll gain weight, right?

Then, the second moment of criminal activity...
We packed a lot of snacks: crackers, yogurt, veggies, fruit, etc. The fruit was actually in a little bin that sat between Bub and I.
We pulled up to the border check-in stations where they asked us if we had any fruit (to prevent unwanted bugs from entering the state and harming their crops).
Cop: Do you have any fruit in the car?
Bub: Nope!
Me: [looking incredulously at Bub]
Cop: OK! Have a great day!

We had oranges, apples, bananas, more apples, cuties, and some other kind of orange.... They were all sitting RIGHT THERE.
Bub after we drove away: Oh! I forgot!
The boys were so worried about getting captured and taken to the fruit prison that everyone ate at least two pieces of fruit right then and there.
Here's the evidence:

We finally arrived in San Diego. Blessed San Diego that I love so much.
And LANE SPLITTING MOTORCYCLES! What the hell??!!?!
Motorcycles just drive through the middle of cars, right on the dotted line, barely skimming past side mirrors. Terrifying!!
Not our favorite thing....

Once we got checked into the hotel, we changed immediately into our swimming suits and hit up the Legoland water park. (But first, we had a botany lesson from Meatball. Check out the different sizes of these leaves from the same stem on the tree.)

Legoland was Meatball's choice for the trip. He had been looking forward to this forEVER, and we had a blast in the water pack. It was chilly, but worth it.
Finally, we went back to the hotel, and Bub called it a day. However, the boys weren't ready to give up the ghost, yet.

They had never been to the Pacific ocean before, and it was calling us. Dark? Who cares! Chilly? No problem! We were going to the beach no matter what...
Since we didn't know where we were and it was dark, we had a hard time finding someplace suitable to park, but we finally figured it out.

California, bound! (Day 1)

We have been planning this vacation for months. I have thought and re-thought the route, the lodging, the food, the activities.... I created a spreadsheet, found Groupons, bought and redeemed vouchers, price matched, scrimped, and saved. On occasion, I've even entertained some input from those vacationing with me.
The plan: head south to San Diego, north up the coast, and home on I-80.
Keep in mind that we limit ourselves to 6-7 hours in the car together so that we don't kill one another. This trip was no different.

It all happened flawlessly! (Riiiiight...)

But first, we had to get the arts festival out of the way. Then, Father's Day. In planning, this all seemed like a fabulous idea. In actuality, it was exhausting. Not the best idea ever. I got about three hours of sleep before we left...

Anyway, we woke up at 4am on Day 1, and packed the car. We woke the boys at about 4:45 and got on the road around 5am.
Don't know about all y'all, but our kids do NOT go back to sleep. So, it was constant talking that would last for the next two weeks.

We headed out "the back way," and got to see this wonderful sunrise around Eagle Mountain. (Note: There are no eagles around Eagle Mountain. Hawks, yes. Eagles, no.)

We finally hit the freeway at Lehi. About ten minutes later, Bub was pulled over for speeding. Not the best start, but she got off with a warning, so whew!

The temperature climbed as we headed south. We saw the smoke from the Brian Head fire but not the fire itself.
There was a fire off the side of the freeway, but it was under control.

We finally made it to Vegas (yuck) and checked into the Luxor, but NOT before we (Bub) parked in the wrong place leaving the trunk open which spilled the boys' scooters all over the road when pulling away.... (Kind of funny, but I won't say that to her face.)
We chose the Luxor because that's what Meatball wanted. Peanut chose Excalibur on our last trip to Vegas, so Meatball got to pick this time.
"I hope that we'll get slanted windows!"
Success! We also got a slanted elevator! Bub was not excited.

Then, off to dinner. Since we had already paid for a voucher to a specific place, we we going there whether we wanted to or not. Once we found it (inside a mall), we really enjoyed it. Bub and I had Italian sausage sandwiches, Meatball a kraut dog, and Peanut a pizza dog. Oh, and a colossal pretzel (Meatball's hand added for reference).

Now, off to bed, please.....