Day 2 Summer Beach Vacation

On day two of our mini beach vacation, I woke up to this! 

It's hard to put into words the feeling I had when I woke up to the sound of waves crashing. I groggily slid open our sliding glass door and strolled out across the grass area to view this. 

As if the crisp freshness and newness of a gorgeous sunny day wasn't beautiful enough, the sounds and views of the ocean gave me a feeling of excitement and happiness that's hard to describe. I slowly woke up standing there drinking in everything around me. I know I've said it here before but there's just something so special about the ocean. It's exhilarating and refreshing. The experience helps put everything in my life into perspective and makes me simply happy to be alive and part of this earth. 

My girls LOVE staying in hotels. I actually think it's highlight of every trip for them.

Hotel comfies! Morgan started a thing where every time we take a decent length car ride somewhere she brings a blanket, pillow and a couple of stuffed animals for comfort and of course Charlotte followed suit. I can't explain exactly why, but I love that they do this. I enjoy watching my girls be comfortable and content.

 You can see the ocean outside the sliding glass doors. Charlotte and Morgan were enjoying pillow fights and jumping on the hotel bed. 

After our continental breakfast (easily another highlight for our girls), we packed up the car and drove down the road to a stop I heard about while researching Cayucos online. We had to just guess where to pull over but it worked out. Thank you Tripadvisor for providing a forum for people to leave such helpful information of fun things to do all around the nation!

With not knowing exactly what to expect, we headed out for our adventure!

 Charlotte is in this phase (that doesn't seem to be going away anytime soon) where she loves to just take off running ahead of us. 

 The views were gorgeous.

 Once to the ocean, Charlotte hung back nervously and did some crying. Poor kid has had some bad wave interactions that have left her leery of the ocean. Thankfully she eventually warmed up and started to join us near the water's edge. 

 Look at these views behind my adorable peeps! Aren't they breathtaking?

We found some cool stuff! Daniel and I love witnessing the girls ohh and ahh over all the little things.

At her happy place...

She matches her surroundings. All different shades of cream, yellow, tan and gold.

The reason we headed out to this area was to tide pool and it didn't disappoint. Below, Morgan and Daniel do some exploring.

Little crabs! They were everywhere and we found ones of all different sizes. It was neat watching them in their habitat. They're funny little creatures.

Charlotte started having fun climbing over these rocks.

Tide pools!

Morgan was a champ! I think she adores the ocean as much as I do.

Can you spot the big crab in the bottom of the below pic?

 I think she was poking a dried up sea urchin.

 So Morgan spotted a lizard and started to try to catch it. Daniel and I didn't think anything of it, until the kid came walking up to us holding the poor thing, lol! I was in shock and Daniel was proud. I don't know that I could bring myself to catch a lizard even if it meant somehow saving my family lol! I just don't know that I could but leave it up to nature loving Morgan to spend 20 minutes chasing the thing and then end up being successful in catching it!

 

Look at the little guy just hanging out.

She was showing it to her younger sis.

The one below is my favorite.

Little girl on big rocks looking at a big ocean.

 I feel like little moments like the one below add up to some pretty big memories.

 She LOVES the ocean! Daniel was actually the one worried about her being wet for the car ride home, and I was the one saying to just let her enjoy it one last time before we left. We had this whole stretch of beach to ourselves.

 After a couple of hours exploring, we headed back to our car to drive back down the road to the city of Cayucos for lunch.

 Hats and beach umbrellas.

 The girls worked up an appetite!

After lunch, we walked down the pier to try to spot whales.

 It was super windy, especially at the end of the pier. Charlotte kept pretending she was going to be carried away by the wind.

 Look at the color of the water! Soooo pretty!

 Hi-fives from dad!

 When there's a play area on the beach, you HAVE to let the kiddos partake. How often do they get to play at a playground with these views?

 The girls took turns trying their hand at flying a kite I had brought. We got a few runs before the kite was toast. We don't have the best of luck when it comes to kite flying.

 And lastly, a trip to the ice cream shop was in order before driving back home.

 The below pic is blurry but oh so cute.

That's some serious ice cream mess! Check out Charlotte's pants. Also, take note that they switched ice cream cones half way through, ha ha!

 Two of my biggest loves in life walking back to our car.

Some of our treasures from the trip. These now sit in a small glass hurricane on Morgan's dresser. She pulls out the shells from time to time to play with them.

And as I say over and over again, I live for the these trips. It's now November and when I think of what I want for Christmas, all I want is money to adventure out with my family! I'd take traveling over material things any day. There's such a beautiful world out there and I want to experience it with my family!