He and Mandi make their plans on the fly, so they were texting each other planning their day. Yup, they were up and ready to do something before noon! I had to put my clean covers back on all of the carseats and reinstall them into the cars, pack a snack bag, restock the extra clothes and jackets in the trunk, and get gas. Oops, I'm the one who isn't ready!
We left the house at 12:01. Almost made it out by noon! Darn! We went to Blocks' house to regroup and figure out our day. We had to see if Mike and Donna were coming too, and who was riding with who, etc. As it ended up, Ed, Mandi and Eden drove their rental car and I drove my car with Gracie and Libby. Everyone else had things to do. We had our plan, and we were off! Mandi was going to follow me. I lost her less than a mile from the house, before we even got onto the freeway. Oh well.
We arrived at Kit Carson Park in Escondido and wandered up through the park to Queen Califia's Magical Sculpture Garden. It was closed. We all went from happy and excited to slumpy and sad. That was very disappointing to find it gated and locked. Eden had a good time anyway. He saw some people playing with a remote control helicopter and he rode in our wagon. Fun stuff! We went back to our cars and headed to La Jolla to see the seals at the Children's Pool beach. We were near it the other day, but ran out of daylight before seeing them so we were going to squeeze it in today.
Once in La Jolla, we had to fend for ourselves with parking. It was hard to find a spot on a holiday! Even though it didn't look crowded as far as the people count but parking was nearly impossible. We planned to meet at the Children's Pool, so I guess it didn't matter where we parked. I found a good spot not too far away on a side street. As soon as I parked, Ed called and said they found a parking spot too. We were just around the corner from them! How funny! I figured we would park a mile apart with it being so hard to find spots.
It was cold in La Jolla! We stepped out of the car and immediately grabbed up our jackets and Libby put on pants. Eden didn't have a jacket, but I had one of Charlie's sweater's in the trunk and a long sleeve thermal shirt too. Ed layered him up and we were set. Gracie said she didn't care if it was cold or not, she was going to jump around in the tide pools. Fair enough. I grabbed a tote bag from the trunk and tossed in some extra pants for her. My trunk has turned into a closet.
We wandered over to the tide pools and sure enough, Gracie splashed around and got her skirt all wet. I made her promise to keep her shirt dry. Libby rolled up her leggings and got her feet wet. Eden was happy to stay on the sand and stay out of the water. We saw a few seals. They are so cute! I just want to pet them! But Gracie said, "No, mom. They'll bite your hand off." She's probably right.
After we hopped around the tide pools we walked out on the sea wall. Lots of seals on the other side in the Children's Pool! And some babies too! They are smelly but oh so adorable!
Everyone was cold and hungry, especially Mandi. We thought we'd wander up the Main Street and see if we could find a local little eatery. A lady came along with a puppy dog and the dog came right up to the kids and rolled over for a belly rub. She told us that there was a pizzeria just up the street and that sounded good to us. We walked to avoid trying to park again.
Delicious dinner! We got to the restaurant at 5:20 and Happy Hour was going until 5:30. Our entire bill ended up on the Happy Hour prices, which was half off of most of the foods. That was nice. La Jolla is an expensive upscale place and the prices reflect that. We ended up eating very good food at reasonable prices. And we had great service too.
Now that we were full and happy and we had done what we could do at the beach, I was ready to head home. It was nearly 7pm and I wanted to get my girls home to bed.
Just a few minutes after I got home, Ed and Mandi popped in. They wanted to know if I would babysit Eden and if Lexie would go out for a beer with them. She already had pajamas on, but she changed and went along. I sent Gracie up to bed, Libby was already asleep and I let Charlie stay up to play with Eden for a bit. Keith was at work.
Keith came home a little after 9 o'clock and was surprised to see Charlie and Eden playing. They were enjoying playing together, but Charlie was fading fast. At 9:40 he said "I'm going to bed. Get me someping to dwink." He laid down in his "camping spot" in his mom's room and passed out. That was the end of that. Eden continued to play and explore until the party crew came back after 11pm. They had a good time and I'm glad the three of them found some time to spend a bit of time together without old people or little people distracting them.
Glad Eden had such a good time in CA and at the beach. He and Charlie look good together. Hope they can visit more.
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