driving with kids: Day 14, Thursday May 1

My parents left in the morning. They boys were sad as Grandpa and Grandma's big motorhome drove away. :(
We hung out at the campsite for a while, I blogged a little. :)
We drove to Santa Monica, which took us about 40 minutes.
We parked on the pier, in a parking lot that was on rickety wood. It had a "6,000 pound" weight limit listed, and I remembered discussions earlier in the week with my dad about how much a suburban might weigh. I was a little freaked out. :)
We walked to the end of of the pier. There were shops, musicians, and lots of tourists.
We hadn't eaten lunch yet, so we had lunch at the restaraunt at the end of the pier. I didn't realize until we sat down and looked at the menu that it was a Mexican restaurant (I don't usually choose Mexican, though it's totally yummy, because it makes me get sick).
We split 2 kids' quesadillas between the boys & got french fries with those. I picked out the 1 item on the menu that didn't look like it would make me AS sick. :) It didn't have any red sauce--it was a seafood burrito with white sauce. Karry and I split that & it was very, very, very good!!
Noah's flip flops (his first time wearing them) were painful and he was having a hard time walking. We stopped at one of the shops along the pier and picked up some little crocks for him, and some Santa Monica tees for the boys. :)
We went down and played on the beach. There were SO many people laying out on the beach, tanning. People were staring at us! We noticed that there weren't any other kids there!!
We jumped in the water as the tide came up--the water seemed rougher than along the Oregon coast.
We sat down on the beach and let the boys run around and dig in the sand. Ruby had her first sand experience! She loved it and didn't try to eat it at first--that came later. :)
We decided to leave by 3:30 pm in hopes of heading back to camp, doing some laundry, and changing clothes before leaving for Medieval Times at 6 pm (the show started at 7).
Driving back to camp took TWO HOURS!!! Our youngest 3 and I got a pretty good nap while Karry drove through the crazy traffic. So glad we left early, we got back to camp at 5:30, ust in time to go to the bathroom, shake the sand off of ourselves and pack up a bottle for Ruby!!
We went to Medieval Times, which the boys LOVED and said was better than the Pirate show. They do a GREAT job there! Only problem--they have no high chairs. Babies are lap babies there (unlike at the Pirate show, she got a high chair--though she was scared and fussy most of that night and in my lap anyways!!). Karry held her this time and had a hard time eating 1/2 a chicken with no silverware and a baby in his lap!! What a fun night though!!!
Isaac says that at his birthday this year, he wants to be a king, with a crown and everything. I found a great, fun crown at the gift shop at this show. It's under our bed, with the other Christmas and Birthday gifts I've been picking up along the trip. :)