Best of Cali: Carpinteria

This is Carpinteria, CA.

This might be my favorite spot in Cali so far!

There is a trail that goes all along the bluff next to the ocean.  From up there you have a bird's eye view of the seals rookery where they come to have there pups every year.  We got to see them last year.  It seemed like there were more this year. 

I love that this beach town has so much wildlife.

Pelicans.

Horses.  On the beach.

This is movie stuff to me.  People really do that?!

And dolphins.

Cool rocks.

The kids were divided on whether or not they would let me take their picture in this perfectly idyllic place.  These two were cooperative.

These two were not.

The other thing that makes this place a winner.

That's right.  The Burger Spot.

Walk right up from the beach for a very satisfying burger and fries!

{This is that final post from our spring break trip.  Due to internet troubles, I am a bit behind on posts.  This week will be catch up.  I mean I haven't even posted about Project Milk Goat!  Soon.  Very soon.}

Autumn Grey {glass beach}

This is Glass Beach in Fort Bragg, CA. 

It used to be a dump (don't we pick great places to put our trash).

So, the sand is full of bits of glass that have been tossed around in the waves for the last how many years.  The glass is all smooth now like pebbles.  You can just search for treasure to your little hearts content.  I could have stayed all day.

The boys liked finding live treasure.  There were fish in this tide pool.

As Joe was climbing around, he left his apple sitting on a rock which this squirrel claimed immediately.

Abby was the only one of us that found any blue glass.  But mostly she was discovering what happened to Anne Frank.

Look at all the great treasures we found!

*note: not all treasure came home with us

We did find some beautiful pieces of glass but I was most excited about these...

Tiny pieces of pottery!  They still have bits of glaze on them.

I can't wait do something with them.

You can check out others' autumn colors in the flickr group HERE.

Malibu!!!

This was one of my favorite days on spring break!

The beach at Malibu!

And we got to spend it with our transplant So Cal friends again.

They taught Abby to body board (is that what you call it?).  The water was fuh-reezing.  Abs always makes fun of me for being so cold natured but I couldn't even put my feet in this water.  I don't know how she managed to spend so much time in there.  But she did great and Miss Smith was a wonderful teacher!

We tried out our DaVinci kite.

We dug the biggest hole ever at the beach (that day.)  Dilly Bean thoroughly enjoyed this play area.

Joe was not convinced to get in the water but he was a major player in the digging expedition.

Found more bugs.

Growing up, my family would take vacations to the beach.  Granted the Gulf of Mexico is a bit different than the California coast, it still brought back memories of spending all day playing in the sand, going for a swim to get the sand off, lounging, snacking, etc.  It still is my favorite kind of day.  To share a day like that with my kids was just so special.  I hope they had as much fun as I did!

To top it off, we had dinner at Neptune's Net!  The atmosphere was great--just across from the ocean, we watched kite surfers while we ate.  And very casual--you order buckets of seafood at the counter and then find your pick of picnic table or booth, out on the porch or inside out of the wind. 

Perfect way to finish off the day!

PS.  It is still cold here at home.  Something about 40's in June is not alright with me.  If I go missing sometime soon, you might look for me in Malibu.

Project Restyle {Sand Toys}

All of these cast-off kitchen items came from my local thrift store.

Grand Total = $3

All the different shapes gave me (uh, I mean, the kids) so much to play with!  The metal spoons were the best.  So much more durable that those plastic shovels you get at Wally World or the Dollar Store.  We had one of those too and it was broken in under 10 minutes.

One of our castles.

And the reason we didn't have very big castles.  (There were a couple of reasons actually.)

Another fun thing to build in the sand...

mermaid tails!



Seaside in Santa Barbara

This is the second half of our New Years road trip.  From Salinas we made our way down to Santa Barbara.  We couldn't make it the whole way without stopping (and when i say we, i mean me.  i'm good in the car for about 2 hours and then i get that claustrophobic feeling which is intensified by four littles all asking me 101 questions at a consistent 90 words per minute) so we all got a nice little stretch and break from the car at this little beach.

It couldn't have been more refreshing.  A little tidepool exploring...

A little playing in the sand.  Trekkers helped out by drawing the legs.

We did make it to Santa Barbara!  Had an outing to the pier.  This is the view of the city from the pier. 

Isn't it gorgeous?!

 At the end of Stearns pier there is a Sea Center that was so fun.  It is focused on local sea life.  There are two different touch pools.  The kids got their hands on sharks, rays, starfish, anenomes.  It was great!

A short walk from our lovely hosts' house is the ocean!  We walked over one afternoon and found all sorts of treasures.

Thanks to the Bakers for their hospitality!

We had some wonderful adventures in SB!