We spent the day in Newport Beach, a place none of us had ever visited. The trip started off with a walk around the entire circumference of Balboa Island, looking at all the boats and cute beach houses. Then we drove up and down Balboa Peninsula, which was packed with people because it was the first day of Labor Day weekend.
Downtown LA was a new experience for the boys, which is where we found ourselves this weekend. We started off with a ride down the Angels Flight funicular to the Grand Central Market, where we had some delicious tacos.
Afterwards, we spent some time wandering around the skyscrapers. The Wilshire Grand Center and the U.S. Bank Tower, respectively the 1st and 3rd tallest buildings west of the Mississippi, were the highlights.
We took the boys to see their first Dodgers game since they were toddlers. On the way to the game, we went to the famous Joe Kelly mural of him doing the pouty face.
And what a game it was! Max Scherzer pitched an immaculate inning and got his 3,000th strikeout. After the game, the boys ran the bases.
We spent the first full day of our time on the Central Coast exploring the tide pools and beach rocks of Moonstone Beach by Cambria. Then we headed further up Highway 1 and took a short hike to Salmon Falls.
Hanging out in downtown San Luis Obispo, looking for some books and checking out the mission.
Our boys had quite the view during lunch, from up top of Bishop Peak. You could see all the way to the ocean.
We gave fishing a try off the Pismo pier, but it was freezing code with seriously strong gusts. The only thing biting was the seaweed. So, we went and visited the butterflies instead.
On the way back down to San Diego, we stopped by Solvang for lunch and a walk around. Then went to Santa Barbara and walked on their pier.
We started off our Spring Break trip by watching the Angels play the Astros. Unfortunately, the Angels played like they were still on vacation, and lost 1 to 4.
We spent a full 3 days at Knott’s Berry Farm, riding the rides, figuring out what a boysenberry tastes like, and standing in lots and lots of lines.
We got to celebrate this year in Portland, at my older sister’s house. The kids had a blast playing and lighting stuff on fire.
My little sister joined us on a trip north to see Mount St. Helens. It is hard for photos to capture the surrealness of a giant mountain missing half of itself.
We visited Powell’s City Of Books for the first time, the largest bookstore in the world. It was massive. Then we wandered around downtown.
We set off today on an 18 day road trip around the entire southern part of the country. We’ll make it all the way to the East Coast before heading along the Gulf Coast to get back home.
The whole day was spent on the road, well over 12 hours. We stopped outside of Yuma to look at the sand dunes, then a little further up the road to stretch our legs and put our hands into the Colorado River. We had dinner in Phoenix then drove the rest of the evening through Arizona’s mountains and into Albuquerque.
The landscape was gorgeous on the drive up to Los Alamos.
We spent the first part of the day at the Bradbury Science Museum, learning about how they built and tested the first nuclear bombs. The museum also covered lots of other areas of science that the Los Alamos National Laboratory now works on.
For the rest of the afternoon, we looked at the local critters and beautiful scenery at the Los Alamos Nature Center.
Having to get back on the road, we drove through more beautiful country, stopping at Santa Rosa, NM for dinner. Then it was a dark drive through the night to get to our hotel in Pampa, TX.
