Seth had a week of vacation the first week of December, so we had a little mini-trip to check out the Central Coast area. We made it to La Jolla (20 minutes) before we needed a stop at Jamba Juice. We were starting to feel a little sick in our family so thought a boost of Vitamin C was in order. That, and because it's so delicious.
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| When did this kid get enormous? |
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| He's just so cute. And we neeeeed to get rid of the binky. |
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| Beautiful coastline. It was a grey, rainy drive but still very pretty I thought. |
We stopped in Oxnard for lunch at, wait for it....Cafe Rio. They have one! Holla! We might have stopped there on our way home too.
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| Best brothers |
We stayed in the darling town of Solvang. It's a Danish settled town in the Central Coast area, but a little inland. The town was full of cute shops, Danish restaurants and bakeries, with workers dressed in Danish clothing. It reminded us a bit of Leavenworth, WA, the little German town we visited around Christmas time when we lived in Spokane. These little towns are cute, but make you
really homesick for real-deal European towns. Can I say homesick if it's not my home? The landscape around the valley was gorgeous and I'm sure it's even better in the spring. It's definitely worth a day trip.
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| Can you believe the building on the right dates all the way back to 1976? ;) |
We stopped at a fun park that had play equipment set up like a small town complete with houses, ships, castles, and a jail. We also visited a miniature horse farm, which is kind of random but it was really cute.
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| I had to add this because Seth asking these guys about what it took to keep a miniature horse. Like, because he thought it would be fun to have one. Doesn't want a dog but does want a mini-horse? |
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| I call this "Bored in a hotel room" |
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| Solvang shops at night |
The second day we drove about 45 minutes to Pismo Beach and visited yet another park. The boys had a blast here. Just behind the park were beautiful (and dangerous) cliffs.
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| Captain of the USS Imagination. I'm jealous of Taft's imagination. I don't think I was nearly as imaginative as him ever. |
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| Lukie likes to give a lot of things "loves". He always says, "Ohhhhh" while hugging. So sweet. |
We checked out a bit of the town, ate at a recommended restaurant for lunch, and walked along the pier. The town wasn't too impressive, but we think there are some big sand dunes that are really popular for whatever you do on sand dunes.
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| Seth the travel-agent teaching Taft how to plan awesome vacations. Seriously, Seth plans all our trips and I just show up. It's really nice. |
After our day in Pismo Beach as we were headed back to the hotel we stopped at a butterfly grove. There were thousands and thousands of Monarch butterflies in the trees. The picture doesn't show it well, but it really was pretty cool.
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| I had to. |
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| The cute blue eyed boys |
It needs to be noted that Seth felt absolutely terrible on this trip. The day before we left he had his flu shot. The next 3 days he felt like he had the flu. He still played tour guide despite feeling awful. I would have laid in bed and ordered people around if it had been me. And you all know that's true. Seth is a better person than me on a lot of levels.
It should also be noted that Luke does NOT sleep well in new places. This trip was no exception.
Wednesday morning Seth was starting to feel better and it was also my birthday. I woke up to a hot breakfast and homemade cards. Taft was really excited that it was my birthday. Probably because he knew there would be cake at some point.
Due to Luke's lack of sleep and subsequent crankiness we decided to head home a day early. We planned to stay the day in Santa Barbara before heading home. First off, I want to move to Santa Barbara one day. It's the cutest town wedged between mountains and the ocean. The town itself is so clean, well-maintained, and so classy looking! We visited a gorgeous mission-style courthouse and went up the tower to get a view of the city. We also visited a very old Spanish mission. It was after the mission that everything went downhill. Luke and Taft refused to walk and we didn't have a stroller (our fault). Luke cried over anything and everything. Taft said in reference to Santa Barbara, "I hate the bells! And I hate the buildings! And I hate this city! And I hate this world!" They obviously had forgotten that it was my birthday or they would have never acted this way. We had spent about 2 hours in Santa Barbara and called it a day. I wished we could have stayed all day because there seemed to be a lot to see and do.
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| View from top of courthouse |
We made it home safely that evening. Taft remembered it was my birthday again (oh yeah! Cake!) and insisted on me staying in my room so he could decorate the house. It really was so cute. Definitely cute enough to forgive him for his earlier shenanigans. Seth made dinner which was followed by delicious ice cream cake.
Solvang- take a day trip, not much to do otherwise
Santa Barbara- could definitely spend the weekend, preferably with Seth and without our dear children
Pismo Beach- Had good clam chowder
