Beach Days

We got to spend two days at the beach. We were not ready to hit Disneyland the day after arriving in California so we took advantage of Tuesday being the warmest day of the week and spent it at the beach. At 71 degrees with a good breeze it wasn’t exactly swimsuit weather but the kids couldn’t resist by the afternoon. Thanks to the breeze, though, we were able to fly the Spiderman kite that we brought.  

We started the morning at Newport Beach and then headed to Huntington around lunchtime. Newport’s sand was so fine and relaxing and we were able to park the car right by where we sat. We saw tons of awesome surfing right in front of us too. Lucy and I spent a good amount of time looking for seashells that we put in her “Ana and Elsa box” that she found at DI a couple days before our trip and had to have. 

We also saw three older people sitting in beach chairs a ways down and the man had a BYU hat on so we dared Owen to go talk to him. Sure enough, Owen walked right over and struck up a conversation. I finally went over and introduced ourselves and one of the ladies told me that Owen told her we were from Idaho. When she asked what city we lived in he told her “the United States of America”. Haha :) Turns out they were all raised in Shelley, ID, but now live in CA and WA. 

We grabbed some Dairy Queen for lunch to bring down to the beach with us in Huntington. Once we got down to the last of our French fries the kids had a good time feeding the seagulls. Seagulls provided a LOT of free entertainment on all of our beach days. It was amazing to see how different all of them looked. Ava and I played some rounds of Uno while Devin and Owen looked for sand crabs - they hit the jackpot! 

Ruby’s Diner was doing half off milkshakes from 2-5pm so we packed up and walked down the pier to get some before going home. We got Oreo, Chocolate Banana, and Strawberry. Really yummy, and I’m glad they were half off because they would have been $6 each otherwise…welcome to California! It looked like a cute place but we didn’t have time to stay and eat before our parking time ran out. We were impressed that parking at both beaches was less than $2/hr.  

               

We also knew that we wanted to eat dinner at the IHOP near our hotel because kids eat free so we headed there after showering. The kids were so excited about their smiley face pancakes. We didn’t get to bed QUITE as early as we should have for an early morning the next day but everyone was really excited about Disneyland! 

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Valentine's Day Whale Watching, Newport Beach

We found a whale watching deal for $20/person and knew it would be the perfect, low-key outing after two busy days at Disney. Our weather in California was so beautiful all week and it couldn't have been a better day to be on the boat. High of 71, not too hot and not too chilly but we were glad we had jackets. We booked in Newport Beach through Davey's Locker with Captain Mike as our guide and he gave us lots of great info about the whales and sea life all along the way, it reminded us of our whale watching days in Alaska! 

This gray whale above (you can just see the fin going down into the water) got so close to the shore it was in 10-15 ft of water at one point! Can you imagine surfing right next to a huge whale?? He said they stay a little closer to shore on their migration rather than being out in the deep sea because the killer whales wait up north to attack the babies traveling with their moms :(

Devin's Instagram post made it look like we got a sitter and went on a Valentine's Day date but it honestly kind of felt like it! We checked in for the cruise at a fishing/tackle/souvenir shop and Ava found this bucket of mermaid toys that she HAD to have. Since we got Owen a Spiderman toy earlier in the trip we let her get this and it was worth every penny. The kids ditched us and went to the cabin of the boat to play, where they set up these little mermaid/sea life scenes and played for so long! Lucy even fell asleep on Devin's shoulder so we laid her down on the seat by the kids and Devin and I really did get to enjoy a lot of the tour by ourselves! The other magical thing was that Devin didn't get too sea sick - this was such a blessing after a not so great day for him at California Adventure.

We had to pull the kids away from their toys to see the dolphins. They were so fun to watch and often came close enough to the boat for the kids to see, unlike the whales which weren't as exciting for the kids. The dolphins swam in threes and twos so it always looked like they were playing. We also saw a cool Mola Mola (Ocean Sunfish) that he said is rare to see this time of year, and its fin made us think it was a shark!

We were lucky to have some other boats around, some of them were friends of our guide who gave us the tip that there were some humpback whales a couple miles out. Captain Mike was super torn about whether or not we should go see them because it was almost time to head back to the marina but he asked if we were willing to be late and everyone cheered to go see the whales :) Humpback whales are also really rare to see in these parts at this time of year, so he was really excited to go see them too.

Ava and I missed both(yes, TWO!) whales jumping out of the water while she was in the bathroom but I'm glad Owen saw them because he was having a hard time spotting things earlier in the day. Our guide kept saying what a blockbuster trip we had and he couldn't believe all the things we were able to see. We feel super lucky because we originally scheduled our tour for 9:30 am but that morning we realized there was no way we'd be getting there on time so we called to change it to 11am for a little extra fee - so worth it!!

 Newport has become our favorite California beach town. It feels super laid back but upscale enough to feel safe and clean, also not too busy. The Balboa Pier has a fun feel with the rides and food stands. We rode the ferris wheel which gave us some of the best views of the city. It was a really long ride too, totally worth the money!

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Day 3 - Torrey Pines Beach and BYU Bowl Game

 






Wednesday was our transition day from north of San Diego, where we were staying with Devin's cousin Michael and his wife Nicole, down to our hotel which was in Mission Valley, closer to downtown. We drove down the coast so that we could see Torrey Pines and maybe take a little hike. Unfortunately we didn't really have time to make the Torrey Pines entrance fee worth our while so we just enjoyed the free beach for a little while while Owen took a nap. Note the 15 week belly bump pic :)

We got all settled into our hotel room and I think we even went swimming before getting ready to go to the BYU game. I remember thinking we were crazy for swimming because it was cloudy and cool
(60-65 degrees maybe?). Even for a "heated" pool it was still a little chilly but the kids were so excited they didn't care! Then we got ready for the BYU game we were going to that night...

When we bought our tickets for San Diego back in August I noticed that the Poinsettia Bowl would be going on during the time that we would be there and I thought "Wouldn't that be awesome if BYU ends up playing in it?!".  We forgot about it for a while and then thought to check what bowl game they were going to about a month before our trip and sure enough - it was the one! I was SO excited. They even had a family deal pack with good seats and a hot dog and a drink for each person.





This picture documents how differently our kids experienced the game. There were fireworks before the game started that we didn't know would be happening and of course Devin was gone getting food for us when they went off, so I got to try and calm both kids who were being hysterically sad/scared of the fireworks. Thankfully Owen calmed down once they were over but Ava was so ready to go home. Getting a hot dog and drink helped a little, but then the game started and she freaked out at every loud cheer and excitement so we tried to convince her to go to sleep and thankfully she did! Owen ate his whole hot dog and spent the rest of the game saying "Fireworks ALLLLL DONE!" (until half time, when they had more fireworks ahh!). He was such a little champ though, if he wasn't sitting happily on our laps then he sat in his chair in total concentration of the game and clapping with everyone else, even just looking at the pictures with me right now he's begging me to go see "BYU football team!".

The other highlight of the game was that it was TORRENTIAL downpour almost the whole game and we just happened to have seats under the awning, which didn't actually go out very far from the food court so there were tons of people in the rain, and the uncovered seats actually ended up being pretty empty most of the game as they went and watched from somewhere under cover. Definitely feeling blessed on that one, especially with kids.

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