California Dreamin' - Day Three

Continuing with my California Dreamin vacation series.....

After our nice drive up the PCH and past Santa Barbara, we ended up at a resort on the oceans at Pismo Beach. It is a really nice beach area fairly close to the town of San Luis Obispo. The beach has a really nice boardwalk and pier type of area where we had a BBQ dinner. It's very touristy here so there are lots of ice cream stores, candy stores, and souvenier shops.

After dinner we walked toward the beach and found a candy store where they sell all kinds of chocolates and salt water taffy. Silly me thought salt water taffy was only popular on the East Coast. Anyway, this particular store also sold chocolate covered bugs. That's right...BUGS. We were fascinated and thought why not try some bugs. So the older boys and husband tried chocolate covered scorpions while I played it safe and went for the worms. Both were really no big deal. In fact it just tasted like crunchy chocolate.

We moved along and watched the sunset off the pier and it was quite beautiful but very COLD. I could not believe how cold it was for an August day.

After much needed rest, we woke up the next morning and enjoyed a nice leisurely morning at the hotel. We mapped out the day and husband suggested that we might want to venture over to the sand dunes. Curiously I said yes not really knowing what to expect. After a fairly short drive we drove down the highway and saw signs for the sand dunes. This venture took us on the beach where we literally drove on the beach (I thought that you could only do that in Daytona) and then to a trailer that sold dune buggy rides.







After a quick education and $250/hour, my older boys and husband decided to give it a try. Geared up in helmets and safety belts, the kind dune buggy guy strapped them in and they were on their way. While they were out dune-buggying, I stayed on the frigid beach with my two little munchkins trying to figure out a way to keep two little people entertained while surrounded by a mountain of sand and 40 degree beach water. We decided to sit in the sand and just play away until the older ones came back. They tell me that it was an awesome experience and that a few times on a few intimidating 40 ft sand dunes they actually were a bit afraid but said the entire experience was worth it.

After leaving Pismo Beach we enjoyed a scenic ride up the Central Coast of California. I enjoyed looking at the mountains since we don't get to see much of that kind of land in Florida. Our goal was to get to Monterey before dinner. We ended up making good time and had some time to kill so we ventured over to a nice park right near our hotel. Although I didn't take any photos while there, this little town is so quaint and cute. It was still quite cold and I still had my jacket on but we had a lot of fun at the park. We ended up retiring for the night pretty early because the agenda for the next day was going to be pretty full.

Next up: Monterey Aquarium, Pebble Beach, and the moment we all were waiting for....San Francisco!

California Dreamin' - Day Two

Day two of our California tour found us on a leisurely drive through L.A. and toward the beaches. I then had a brilliant idea that we should meander through the town of Calabasas. Why Calabasas you ask?

Perhaps it has something to do with this...



This is the store where they film the show "Keeping Up With The Kardashians" which is one of my favorite E! celeb reality shows. I felt like a paparazzi jumping out of my car to take photos of the storefront. In reality the town is so beautiful and shows more of the country side in the mountains in LA County.

After we left Calabasas we headed over to Malibu and the Pacific Coast Highway where we were hoping to run into some stars hanging out at the beach. I am pretty sure I saw Matthew McConaughey but upon second glace it ended up being an impersonator of this character...






I don't know how I mixed the two of them up...maybe it was just my imagination wanting to see Matthew and his beach tan.

So after not seeing so many stars we continue up the PCH for a leisurely drive toward Santa Barbara. The PCH is really nice but I was not too impressed with it in the L.A. area. It looked to me like any other highway with beach on the side and with my being from Florida it didn't look much different than the beach roads I have seen all my life.

We finally make it to Santa Barbara right in time for lunch and I am really impressed with how beautiful this beach area is. The weather is picture perfect. Air temperatures are mid-70s with low humidity. The wind made it feel a bit chillier and the water temps are much colder than what I am used to here in Florida. We find the Santa Barbara pier and it was amazing to me that you can drive your car on it. We did that and found a cute restaurant to eat lunch right on the pier. After lunch we walked up and down the pier. There were tons of sailboats in the water and was such a relaxing time. We made our way down to the beach and played in the water and sand and just soaked in the California air.







After we left Santa Barbara, we continued up the PCH to a beach called Pismo Beach where we enjoyed a relaxing afternoon and evening on the boardwalk. We ended up at a little candy store on the waterfront that is known for fudge, salt water taffy, and chocolate covered bugs. Of course, we had to try some bugs so we tried worms and scorpions. I have to say that was interesting watching one of my kids chew up a scorpion but in reality they tasted like crunchy rice krispies dipped in chocolate. The night ended as we watched the sunset and then turned in to end another fun filled day on the California coast.

Stay tuned for Day Three where I will talk about our first ever dune buggy rides on the famous sand dunes at Pismo Beach and the most beautiful ride of our lives as we drive up the PCH through the mountains of Big Sur. I can see why it is called one of the nicest drives in the entire country.

California Dreamin' - Day One

After a really nice 4 1/2 hour flight from the east coast to Long Beach, we made our way to our hotel for some much needed rest in the Los Angeles area in anticipation of our first full day at Six Flags Magic Mountain. We definitely had to move from east coast time to west coast time.

After a decent highway drive from the hotel to Magic Mountain, one thing I noticed was that it is DRY in California. The mountains are huge and beautiful but also very brown! Which probably explains why everywhere you go you see signs on conserving water. Also, in August, it is a fairly nice 80s temperature in the city but when you go to the valley where Six Flags is it gets into the upper 90s.

Six Flags was a really fun day as you can see from our picture on my new banner. I have never seen more roller coasters in my life than at this park.

If you want to see them more up close and personal go here.

In addition to the many coasters was a really awesome kids area. There were a ton of rides for the little ones including a real Thomas the Tank Engine Train! My little guy was in pure heaven.

Of course he wanted ALL of us to squeeze on this train which we did lovingly for him.

My prince and princess enjoyed the many other kids rides like the tank engine roller coaster, Tweety's bird cage ride, the spinning tea cups, the carousel, and a pounce and bounce ride. The little ones were having so much fun there that we decided to hang around for a while with them and let the big boys loose to run around on all of the roller coasters.




However, the best ride of all in kiddie land was not really a ride. It was a playground called The Looney Tune Lodge. This was a huge fun zone filled with slides and thousands of foam balls to throw all around and put in these big cannon-like devices so they can be catapulted all over. It was loads of fun and a great place for kid energy.

Overall, I would rate the experience a huge success. After all, how many theme parks can you go to and get a plate of sushi? Not many.

Day One finished with a very hot, sweaty, and tired group of people as we headed back to the hotel for a nice bath and good night sleep.

Stay Tuned for Day Two where you will hear about my paparazzi moment, our drive up the Pacific Coast Highway, and how I swear I saw Matthew McConaughey.

Back From Vacation

We are finally back from a very long and fun-filled vacation that took us all the way across the country to the great state of California. Our plane just landed at 5:30 this morning and boy am I tired. I have to choose between the 10 loads of laundry that await me or sleep off some of this jet lag.

There will be weeks of blogging to come on the trip with lots of pictures! Stay tuned.