Legoland Hotel

We finally got the opportunity to truly surprise the boys! We packed, woke up in the middle of the night, hopped in the car, drove 7 hours all without them knowing where to! They even got to unwrap clues every hour of the trip (when they were awake) and still didn't figure it out

but we were Legoland bound! The military tickets are buy a discounted day and get a day free so it worked out pretty well to go down and spend a full day at the park, then a 2nd day doing the park in the morning and their water park in the afternoon. We also got a great military deal at the unique and amazing Legoland Hotel (aka little boy paradise)!

While they were a little disappointed the the hotel walls were not actually made of Legos, I can tell you that the hotel has thought of EVERYTHING! Huge, intricate and beautiful Lego figures everywhere you turn. Details everywhere that focus on kids (built in toddler toilet seats, stepstools for the sink, even child sized peep holes in the door) My favorite detail was the pint sized buffet line at the restaurant- for both the complimentary breakfast and the dinner buffets there was a shorter buffet line just for kids that had all kid favorites, while the taller lines offered more adult offerings. The kids ate some things from the "adult" lines and Geoff and I enjoyed the heck out of things from the "kid" line but it was amazing just to give them a plate and let them go at it! They felt so independent!

Pictured here are one of the dozens of lego pits that the kids could play in and build with while parents were doing the boring stuff like checking in or waiting in line for tables...

While the first floor is just general Lego and Lego Movie fun, each of the 3 floors of rooms are themed to the extreme! First floor was "kingdom" where Knights Jesters Kings and Queens abound. The second floor was "pirate" and the third floor (our floor) was "adventure"; an Indiana Jones goes to ancient Egypt feel!

We were hooked at first activity when the boys had to go on a scavenger hunt throughout the hotel to collect clues that would tell them the combination to the treasure chest in our room. When they got it open they found packs of mini figures for each of them to keep along with a massive box of legos for them to create with in the room. 

Add to all of this the fact that the kids had their very own side room with bunk beds and a TV that only got kids channels- it was indeed a kids paradise!

Exploring Santa Cruz

We had the best time exploring a bit of what Santa Cruz had to offer last weekend! Its about an hour north of us so we drove up and checked out Natural bridges State Park, had an amazing lunch at Mission St. BBQ, stopped to see what The Mystery Spot was all about and then hit Glaum Egg Ranch on our way home!

Natural Bridges State Park was just a scenic place to walk along the sand and stick our toes in the ocean. There use to be three of the natural bridges like shown but one collapsed/eroded and the other fell during the '89 earthquake. The boys enjoyed climbing up the rocky sided cliffs and playing in the trees.

We stopped by Mission St BBQ for some lunch and it was delicious. I am partial to tomato based BBQ sauces and they used vinegar but the pork was delicious and the boys had amazing looking plump hotdogs. The best park for me was their oil cloth decor and chunky potato salad. Wasn't quite like home but was a dang good reminder!

The Mystery Spot is a fun tourist trap in Santa Cruz where somehow, someway the "natural" gravitation pull is altered so that everything is leaning when you feel like you are straight. The boys thought it was the coolest thing ever and the guide did lots of tricks to wow them. I had a baby strapped to my back and honestly the leaning/dizzy feeling was compounded with the extra weight so  I was happy when the tour ended but I'm glad we saw what the fuss was all about. 

Our final stop was the Glaum Egg Ranch in Aptos on the way home. Its this cute organic egg ranch where the late grandfather was a tinkerer/inventor and had created an egg vending machine. Sure enough, you slide your dollar bills in like a regular vending machine and the slot opens and out comes a tray with 19eggs on it. Feeding your money in also causes the curtain on the adjoining Chicken Show to open and for them to start dancing and clucking away for their 2 minute show. Apparently their costumes and decor get changed for every season so we saw them in their Easter-finest, while this youtube video of the experience shows them at Thanksgiving. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OkCQ1Rto_UQ

It was just a fun "things you don't do everyday" Saturday for sure

Friday Funday: Birthday Style

Our last Friday Family Funday coincided with my birthday so we loaded up and checked out the aquariums for an hour or so before heading over to Sapporo for some habachi. Most habachi restaurants we've been to have in strip malls and rather dark inside; this was the exact opposite. Sapporo is right on the municipal wharf dock and inside the restaurant were floor to ceiling windows overlooking the marina and the bay- it was beautiful! The habachi presentation was rather typical, but the obviously fresh shrimp, salmon and fish fillets (for the oldest picky eater man cub) were a welcomed surprise. They also pulled out all of the noisy stops for a post meal drumming rendition of the birthday song and presented me with the most beautiful, and equally delicious fresh fruit "fish". The wait staff took an instant picture of us and wouldn't you know that they captured a dang good family portrait! It was certainly a birthday meal to remember and we will certainly be visiting Sapporo again- it exceeded our expectations!

Camden meet Carmel; Carmel meet Camden

Last weekend we had the BEST time exploring Carmel Beach- Carmel is one of the few around where the beach is owned by the city, and not a state park, so they have their own rules. Dogs are allowed off leash and bonfire are allowed at night! It was like a huge tropical paradise dog park. We have never really taken Camden some place where she had free reign and little miss did SO well! She would run up and check out other dogs or others groups as they walked by, but she knew where her pack was and would quickly trot back to make sure all was well. Besides our rookie mistake of bringing the same yellowish green tennis ball that every other dog on the beach had- we did pretty well with getting the lay of the sand.

McWay Falls/Big Sur

Last weekend our big adventure was finally getting to see Big Sur in all its glory. Unfortunately we learned that Monterey sits in the "sunny patch" and as soon as we got past Carmel on the 1 it was fog all around. The cliff/ocean views along the Pacific Coast Highway you could tell SHOULD be amazing but we saw mostly fog... so we'll have to stop to eat at Nepenthe next time, maybe when one of you visits :)
We did get to see one of my must sees. The waterfall that has been speaking to me since before we left North Carolina! We parked at Julia Pfeiffer Burns State Park and did the little hike to McWay Falls (which I learned is a tidefall, not a waterfall, since it flows right into the ocean)

Pacific Grove Saturday

A perfectly perfect Saturday exploring our new home!

Sharing Saturday (i.e. free with special activities for kids) at the Pacific Grove Natural History Museum. Grant saw a real Peregrine Falcon- which he is doing a project on for school. The big boys made pinecone bird feeders and got to play in this fabulous nest.

The we walked down to Lover's Point to stick our toes in the Pacific- I can't wait to go back with a picnic

Up next was the Pacific Grove Butterfly Sanctuary.  The Peninsula is home to the Monarch butterflies before they mate and migrate so every winter there are thousands and thousands that clump together and hang from the eucalyptus trees. I know the pictures aren't the best but it was amazing to think that what you at first thought were rustling leaves were actually butterfly wings

We ended the afternoon with our first drive down 17 mile drive. We are in paradise and this half hour reminded me both the Norwegian archipelago and the Almalfi coast. Rocky cliffs into beautiful blue water, mega-mansions built into the cliffs, sun shining as we drove through Pebble Beach, Spyglass and Spanish Bay courses, our first glimpse at the famous Lone Cypress... smiles all around!

Whalefest

Last Saturday was Whalefest- a fun festival down by the wharf to spotlight the marine life of Monterey Bay. It was obvious the booths were required to have an interactive lesson or component for kids which was awesome- usually the boys just gloss over info booths but they were all in on this one. The highlight in their eyes was the Wheelie Mobile from the Monterey Youth Museum- a mobile kids play museum, right up their alley... overall a PERFECT way to spend some Mommy/older boys time while Davis napped

Fun Friday #2: Aquarium and LouLou's

For this Friday's adventures we celebrated my mom having just landed- we picked Grant up at school and did a brief stop at the aquarium. The boys each got to pick something to show her. Carter picked the Sea Otters, Grant picked the Tentacles exhibit and then Grandma chose Penguins.

For dinner we went to the pier right at 5pm and got into LouLou's right when they opened. LouLou's Griddle in the Middle is a famous Monterey staple but it tiiiiny- there were 4 4person booths and 6 seats at the bar- for our party of 6 they turned 2 of the 4 person tables against the wall and we ate facing the windows. LouLou's is the epitome of Sea to Table- Geoff ordered the crab special and we saw the boat pull up to the pier and a fisherman bring up nets full of Dungeness Crabs- 10 minutes later Geoff was served one! (and the boys enjoyed playing with the claws) They split calamari and fries, Mom got a delicious Sole special with pineapple mustard and Polenta and I went with crab cakes- yum yum yum