California Beaches

Preston is on Fall Break for school and what better way to take our minds of the rigorous homework routine and daily battles over getting dressed and actually doing homework than escape to the the sunny beaches California and leave it to the magic of Disneyland to help all of us forget all those daily struggles.  We started our trip off at the beaches near south of Los Angeles.  First we went to Corona Del mar near Newport and enjoyed the entire day chasing the waves and meeting new friends.  Porter was so enthusiastic and excited by every single wave that came in.  For about 30 minutes he ran up and down the beach following the waves screaming with delight.  Preston was a little more timid and spent most of his time looking for "shales" and building sand castles.  As soon as porter would see anything resembling a sand structure Mr. Wreck It would come stomping over it and say in in mumbled voice, "I don't like sand castles!".  They both met friends and spent the rest of the day playing without a care in the world.

Porter spent most of his day in the water.  Splashing, running, rolling in the water, and sometimes nearly drowning.  He always had to be near it and for some reason really liked the idea of being swallowed up by the ocean.  Preston on the other hand, like in pictures, always kept his distance.  He would go right up to the line of the tide and keep a nice safe observation distance.  The only way to get him further in was by force.  Eventually he didn't mind it if Matt or I were holding his hand but he always wanted to run if he saw the waves coming.  He was more interested in beach exploration and wild life than the splashing that his brother was taking part in.

The remains of what was on its way to be a spectacular sand castle city.

He ran away as soon as I let go of him. 

I was in shock that Preston allowed Matt to do this to him.  He is not a fan of anything enclosed around him.  But, he was a good sport and thought it was pretty funny.

Keeping a nice safe distance from that unpredictable child swallowing ocean.

The next day we tried another beach.  We went to Laguna Beach and a little spot close to what is known as Treasure Island beach.  It was full of cliffs and rocks.  I think this one scared both boys a little  because Porter was not running up and down the beach enjoying himself.  He was a little more cautious, especially when he was near the rocks when the water was splashing up onto them.

Onto Balboa Beach.  We took a ferry to get to this beach.  Which was the same price to drive your car on as it was to just walk on.  It was a beautiful beach, with a ton of sand leading up to it and all those cute beach front houses opening up right to it.  This beach must have a huge tide that comes in because their was a huge lip of sand going across the whole beach.  We used it for long jump competitions and to practice our jumping skills.

The last beach we went to was La Jolla Cove.  We didn't really swim here we just stopped and walked around and enjoyed watching the seals.  It was a beautiful area.

On our last day in L.A. we took the kids to see the Hollywood sign.  It was a beautiful view.

Now for the food.  Some was good, some of it was awesome and some was really not worth mentioning. The Cream Pan bakery in Tustin was my favorite.  The mini strawberry pastries were so delicious I could have eaten for the rest of the trip and probably not have gotten tired of them.  My pecan cinnamon roll was equally delicious.

We ate a whole lot of Mexican food while in California.  Enchiladas for Matt and Fish tacos for me.  I still have not found my favorite and now I think I have started a quest for the best fish taco.  

At Oscar's in San Diego

This burrito place outside of Burbank was supposed to be amazing.  I love a good breakfast burrito, but man this was probably the most disappointing place we went to the whole trip. So disappointing I don't even remember the name of the joint.  

In Anaheim we went to Bruxi's waffle sandwiches.  I was a little skeptical about the whole concept but they won me over pretty quickly.  

I found this cute little boarder line hippy joint in Corona Del Mar.  This was their special drink that they are known for that combines delicious tart frozen yogurt with shaved ice and drenched in berry juice and then topped with sweet strawberries, kiwi, mochi (I could do without that) and sweet red beans.  It was surprisingly delicious.