Another gorgeous day on the West coast. As a matter of fact, aside from some traffic that slowed our progress from place to place, our day was pretty close to perfect!
Chris got up early and went for what he described as one of his top ten all time runs. He made friends with a deer (and he says a bobcat - but he's got no photographic evidence of said friendship) and took some great pictures!
After he came back from his run, the real work began...getting the rest of us out of bed. Not really! We were psyched to see the ocean...and maybe swim in it (not me. It's cold. Really cold. Ocean swimming should only be done when you must cool off from 100+ degree heat and crazy sun. Only when the threat of sharks and jellyfish is less than the threat of heat exhaustion.) Anyhow, we were up.
We packed up relatively early this morning and headed to the lodge for breakfast. Aside from not having caramel for Zoe's caramel macchiato, bagels to eat or coffee...all was good. Zack did get a great Cuban panini at 9am. And we did end up getting coffee. Obviously. I mean we continued on with our day. Late night blogging + no coffee = legit disaster. Hope we don't see that particular madness this trip!
Zoe found the perfect Grand Canyon hat. It's reversible. The brim is made of weird foam. Marches to her own drum that one.
Zoe and I were both rocking our LuLaRoe leggings today, which made our seven hours in the car the comfiest seven hours ever! I seriously don't travel in anything else.
After breakfast we headed down to Asilomar State Beach. So different from southeastern beaches! Chris was planning on us spending five minutes watching the waves and taking some pics, but the kids had other plans. They had a blast watching, climbing, exploring, discussing and learning. It may have been an hour we didn't plan on, but it was my favorite hour of the day. (Or at least second favorite...the wine tasting was pretty awesome too)
Zack loves the ocean (so his father's child). It was fun to watch him watch the waves.
Both children had no qualms about climbing rocks and jumping crevasses, or giving me mini heart attacks. I'm not normally a worrier, but these were some big rocks, high above a crazy sea...and I had no idea where the local ER was (and Frank wasn't here to tell us!).
Pacific selfie!
Zack seeing how close to the water he could get.
Zoe discovered that on one of the rock outcrops, there were about a dozen huge sea lions! So crazy to see them just hanging out in the wild. She started barking and they were totally checking her out! If you look closely you can see a few in this pic!
This is our ride for the week. It's perfect. As a matter of fact, the kids and I are trying to convince Bender to trade his VW station wagon in for one of these bad boys. We are not gaining ground, but we're trying.
When we started from Asilomar we knew we had at least six hours of driving to the Marina del Rey area. We didn't have lunch plans so we decided to pick a vinyard and check it out.
Our requirements were simple...kids needed to be welcome, lunch needed to be served, and wine needed to be red and affordable! We ended up at AronHill Vinyards in Pasa Robles. It was totally a find!
Gorgeous! We'd never been to a vinyard before. Truth be told, I had never enjoyed wine before our time in Italy last summer. (I still wish tap wine was a thing in the U.S.! Any entrepreneurs out there that can figure out how to bring that awesomeness to Jax? I won't even charge you for the idea!)
After being told that the liquor police would come get them if they touched the bar, the kiddos settled at a table to relax while Chris and I tasted six different wines- 1 white, 5 red - all tasty!
After tasting and picking which ones were continuing on our journey with us, we started on the business of eating one of the yummiest lunches of all times! They let us use the members-only room to lunch in because we're high rollers (or because they wanted the kids out of the tasting room...same thing). Zack had a chargrilled Caesar salad, I had a beet and goat cheese salad, Chris had a chicken, pear and manchego panini, and Zoe had a fancy green goddess grilled cheese. Exquisite. Yum to the nth degree.
We spent more time than planned at AronHill, but that's kind of the point of this trip. Enjoying the journey and the surprises we find along the way (but don't mess with my time in Vegas...just saying). It was supposed to be my turn to drive, but, um, yeah, no. I needed a quick nap - tasting is tough work y'all!
We chose to take the more scenic route to Marina del Rey...which meant awesome views like this...
But longer in the car for these crazies to occupy themselves. Some unexpected expected traffic made our trip an hour and a half longer which meant we didn't make it to our hotel until around 6.
When we got there, Zack found the Argentina/Chile game and a seat to chill in. Unfortunately, it wasn't our hotel. Ours was down the street. But the guy at the front desk felt bad for us and gave us some awesome still-warm cookies! Score!
We did make it to our hotel. We quickly changed and headed out - Venice Beach or bust! Chris visited with his family many moons ago and he was determined to go back.
We found it. The kids were super entertained - Zoe held my hand the whole time. We saw some amazing graffiti artists, tons of street artists and vendors, and the people watching was on my top ten of all times (you don't need to run to have top ten lists).
The boys did some of this...
While us girls did some of this...
Zoe even got artsy...
It was all fine and dandy until Zack and Chris didn't listen to the lifeguard telling them to get out of the water..so they had to send the truck, complete with lights and sirens to pull them out. Boys.
He's gaining on him 😉
After swimming, Zoe wanted to hit Muscle Beach and show off her stuff.
This
Led to this...
And of course this
Led to this. (I'd never seen her go that high before! Such a competitive little thing!)
Of course, this contest soon followed.
Thank goodness Bender didn't try any of this...
Muscle Beach with the Benderz!
Before it got too dark (the later it got the more 'interesting' the people watching got), we headed back to our hotel. It was almost 9 on a Sunday and we still needed to eat dinner. Truth be told, we miss the European dining schedule of apps at 7, dinner at 10. Perfect on vacay! I found a spot in nearby Playa del Rey that was open and got good reviews from locals.
The shack was a shack, but it had delicious burgers, and although there was no beer menu, they had cold, tasty, local beers that we enjoyed. Perfect dive bar experience! It was almost 11 by the time we got back to the hotel. The kids charged Twix ice cream bars to the room (we are creating monsters) and caught up on all things social media.
We are headed for Hollywood in the morning and Vegas in the afternoon! Yaaassss! Have a great Monday y'all!
XOXO,
Benderz
Love these GoPro shots from Asilomar. If anyone ever gets invited to a conference there, I'm coming with you!!
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