How is the weekend already gone!? I am having a really hard time jumping into this week and I know it’s because we had such a great time as a family this weekend! With this move we have been spending all of our free time looking for a house and getting everything tied up in Idaho. Jules works like crazy during the week and then we are all business 90% of the weekend! This last weekend I told Jules we were going to do something different! We loaded the kids up in the car and hit the road!
Let’s first start with how insane the traffic is here. All. The. Time. Living in the Seattle area for as long as we did we totally get the big city traffic. California is not much different than Seattle as far as the horrendous traffic goes. Living in Idaho for the past two years really screwed up my reality! Once you can, and we did, get over the traffic, the short day trips you can make here are amazing!
Monterey
We headed to Monterey on Saturday and it was the perfect day. The weather was beautiful and there really weren’t that many people there! I was super bummed I didn’t plan better and pack a beach bag, but it didn’t much matter since the kids played in the water anyway! We originally wanted to hit the aquarium while we were there, but the line just to get in was at least 200 people long…. No thank you! Maybe another day.
We drove down Cannery Row and it was such a cool little area! All the little shops and restaurants were adorable. We then headed back to Fisherman’s Wharf. We were shocked at how easy it was to park! Parking was only $1.50/hour, which is so cheap! We parked and walked around. The kids loved looking at all the boats and all the cute little crabs crawling around on the rocks! We wanted to go whale watching but we missed the boat! I am already planning that trip, and soon!!!
After we walked around the Wharf, we headed to the beach! I was wearing entirely the wrong outfit… but we didn’t care! The kids were so happy to play in the water and sand and we loved watching them! Once they were soaking wet and covered in sand from head to toe, we wrapped things up and made the trek home, with two very sleepy babes!
Santa Cruz
Round two! Our Sunday morning was a little slow to start. We were exhausted from our adventures the day before, but we decided to load up and hit the road again. This time we headed to Santa Cruz. Neither Jules nor myself had ever been to Santa Cruz, so we had no idea what to expect. The drive was breath taking. Every turn the road took, I was pointing out something else that was absolutely stunning! The rolling hills, the trees, everything! At one point we literally felt like we were on top of the world above the clouds driving through a dream! Basically I fall in love with all the beauty that is California more everyday.
We pulled into Santa Cruz and the traffic was insane. Shocking I know. Everyone had the same idea on this gorgeous sunny day! We made our way down to the boardwalk and found a parking spot. A little word of advice, just be patient with the parking situation. We took things slow and ended up finding a really close spot and only paid like $5 for the whole day!
The Santa Cruz Boardwalk is so fun! It’s all your carnival dreams come true! The rides were amazing and having the ocean as a background was so much fun! We went to the beach and it was packed! Tens of thousands of people were on the beach. Like it was kind of a lot. That is expected though. The water was freezing but that didn’t stop a lot of people, including my crazy kids! As far as swimming the waves were really big, and honestly a little to rough for my kiddos. Monterey was much better for small kids swimming, just an FYI. We still hung out and built sand castles and just enjoyed the relaxing time on the beach.
After a while we made our way back to the boardwalk and the kids got to ride some rides! They loved every second of it and we can’t wait to go back, with Grammy and Papa specifically! As far as the cost of the rides, I thought they were super reasonable and totally worth it. The lines weren’t that long for how many people were there, and they had a good variety of kid’s rides.
Around 5 o’clock everyone started melting down. Literally. We all needed some water and some food and a long ride back home for a nice nap. We took some detours on the way home and passed the most beautiful ranches and vineyards. Basically I’m packing up now and finding a house in Los Gatos.
We got home and everyone crashed.
We had an amazing weekend and I am already planning our future adventures!!! There is so much to explore here and I can’t wait to see it all.
XO,
Corrine Monique
Leave a Reply