Spring Break Finale

The last three days of Spring Break we went camping to Morro Bay.  I was worried about going because it can be really cold there, but it turned out to be perfect weekend to go.  We drove down Friday night and spent the night at Aunt Kiki's house ( a 4 hour drive).  We had Easter there the next morning (which I thought I had pictures of but I guess not). We headed out early to get to our camp spot to set up (she only lives 20 minutes from Morro Bay).  The kids were very anxious to see the beach.

Day 1 

We went to Morro Rock (which I don't have pictures of because I guess I've seen it so many times I didn't think of it). Right around there we saw these three sea otters. They were very playful and they were rolling around a lot.  They were really close to shore too which was great for the kids.
Right across the street from where we saw the sea otters is this beach. As you can tell from the fact that the kids have winter coats on, it was COLD.  This was what I was expecting though so we were prepared.  It was about 55 degrees with howling wind. The kids didn't care and had a blast playing at the beach.  They were dying to get their feet wet but since everyone had long pants on I didn't let them. (We were planning to go to a better beach for that anyway.)
Adam and Daddy building sand castles. Adam didn't like the water.

I just had to take a picture of this crazy person.  She lathered up and ended up sun bathing in a little bikini.  She must have been from Alaska or something because everyone else on the beach was totally bundled up!
Next we went hiking in Los Osos at a park called The Oaks. There were lots of these big oak trees for the kids to climb on.  Andrew saw a few lizards and he even saw a bunny!
Along the trail in The Oaks.

After that park we went to Montana de Oro to check out the tide pools.  We saw sea stars and sea anemone. The kids liked to touch the anemones and make them close (they also liked that they felt sticky).  You can see Morro Rock in the background.
At the tide pools were these HUGE sand dunes. They liked to climb up and roll down in the soft sand.  They all agreed that they wished they had a big sand dune in their back yard.

Day 2 
We drove up the coast past San Simeon to see the elephant seals.  This picture was taken on the board walk at the seal look out.
Only female and juvenile seals were on the beach - no males. There were a few seals swimming in the water too which the kids really liked.  The seals would scoop up sand and then throw it on their backs to keep cool.
The whole beach was covered with seals.

After the seals we went and had lunch at a park down the road.  The conditions were just perfect.  We sat at our picnic table and had lunch while hearing the waves pound below. We could also look up and see Hearst Castle up on the hill. 

After lunch we went to Avila Beach. This is where the kids had a blast.  I have never been there when it's actually been warm so I didn't even pack swim suits.  At the beach where we ate lunch it was 64 degrees (according to my car) and then at Avila it was 75 degrees!  I ended up having to buy the kids some suits right there because they were DYING to swim.  Good thing I did because they ended up swimming in the ocean for 3 hours! 

They liked running away from the waves.  I really can't believe they swam for that long because the water felt like ICE. Adam didn't like the water because it was too cold.  It hit his feet by accident once and he totally lost it.  Even looking at these pictures after we got home made him cry. Poor guy!


We didn't do too much hanging out at our campsite.  We were usually gone most of the day seeing all the sites.  
Jason and Preston around the the fire.  Kirsten and Nick came for one night and had smores with us, the kids loved that.

After Adam went to bed they loved to burn the ends of their sticks. The second night we made popcorn over the fire and they really liked that too.

Overall it was a very successful trip. In Natasha's words "Morro Bay is the best camping spot EVER!"