4th of July weekend adventures

Ah, the fourth of July.

Red, White, and Blue, and fireworks too!

We generally don’t do anything special for the 4th of July.  One year we went to a friend’s low-key party and played with fireworks, another year we went camping with that same friend.  Most years we really don’t do anything.

This year we decided to join thousands of Californians in driving south for the holiday weekend so Thursday evening we packed up the car and began the six seven hour drive down to Santa Barbara.  We were quick to realize that our big boy had spoiled us.  As a baby (and even now), he was (is) a great traveler.  He entertains himself pretty well in the carseat and is as easygoing as it gets.  Not so with Moose.  He is a clingy one and hates to be put down at home, at the park, and good luck to you if you put him in the carseat and abandon him in the backseat!  He cried for at least 4 hours of the drive.  We had to stop frequently to feed him, strap him in, and then try and calm him down again.  Obviously we were torturing him!

We arrived in Santa Barbara at 1am Friday, at which point Ducky decided to wake up and not go back down easily.  Oh well.  At least we can all sleep in, right?  Bwahahaha.  No.  Not with a toddler and 8 week old!

Anyway.  Friday was SUPER low key.  We had breakfast and just lolled around (Note: not LOL’d, lolled) in the morning and then got Ducky down for his nap.  Then lunch while he slept and when he woke up we went off to the UCSB campus beach.  I’ve never been to the campus, so that was a kick too.  Captain Awesome and Ducky went off to explore and Moose and I sat and watched the surfers (ok, I watched the surfers, he napped in the stroller).

We enjoyed a nice low-key dinner on the patio and then worked to get the babies down for bed.  Ducky absolutely REFUSED to sleep in the pack-n-play, so he was on an air mattress on the floor (so glad I impulse bought that the week before).  The downside is that he gets up and walks around rather than going to sleep.  Womp.  However, he can get out of the pack-n-play if he doesn’t want to be there, so… it’s lose-lose either way.

Saturday was MUCH more fun.  We got up, broke the fast, and toddled off to the Santa Barbara Zoo.  While Captain Awesome and I enjoyed the animals a lot, Ducky wasn’t quite as intrigued.  Moose couldn’t care less about the animals, so he just snoozed in the stroller (and then in the baby k’tan).  There were Lions and Tigers (I think) and Bears, oh my!  The thing that got our attention the most were the apes, one of them silverback.  OH, and the elephants :).

Ducky was particularly fond of the Zoo train, but I didn’t go on it, so I don’t have any photos.  Sad Violin.

boring part summed up:  Lunch.  Nap fail (daddy went to the gym). Nap success (but very short).

BEACH! We hopped off to Ledbetter beach, but I didn’t grab photos of this either.  Sorry guys.  Ducky and Daddy walked around gathering sticks, stones, and sand and generally looked gorgeous doing it (as usual).  Moose and I hung out in the shade.

Dinner on the beach.  I had the fish tacos and about a tablespoon of wine before I got tipsy.  Can someone say lightweight?  SO… still no alcohol for me.  Or not much anyway.  I love the flavor (I’m a wine and Cider gal with occasional mixed tropical drinks), but I hate feeling even tipsy, so I never get far.  No pics of this either.

Guys, I’m really bad at remembering to haul out the camera(phone) for these things.  Practice makes perfect, right?

Boring sum-up: Bath, bed, reading, sleep. breakfast.   Goodbyes to SB and back in the car.

It just so happened that some of our local friends were planning on travelling south around the time we were headed back up north.  They moved their travel plans and we headed to PISMO BEACH!.

Pismo was beautiful, cool, grey and beach-y.  We stopped for cinnamon rolls here and then took off to the beach.  Just a note – Britax Be Ready is an amazing stroller, but it is NOT a sand friendly stroller, haha.

We played on the beach for an hour or two and then were back on the road for the torturous, traffic-filled drive home.

I’ll skip that. :)

~E.S.

 

 

About Katiebear

Singer, Wife, Mommy, Teacher. Living with nose to the ground.
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