Morro Bay

Easter break and our family needed one...a break, I mean. So I jumped on Priceline and found a great hotel right off of Morro Bay Beach, we packed up the car for 4 days, and spent precious moments together as a family, soaking in the sunshine, eating lots of fish and chips, and collecting seashells and memories along the way. It was such a wonderful time together! I took a lot of pictures and there's a lot in this post but I figured you'd want to see a few, right? So, here they are...with a little commentary in between.

Tyler picking up shells and the 3 kids exploring the shore.

 Mikayla was so excited to jump into the ocean. To me, the waves had the temperature of barely melted ice cubes so I wasn't so anxious to get my feet wet.

 The sun starting to set.

 I'm amazed I got a shot of the 3 kids together. It was hard to wrangle them in.

 Stairs down to Moonstone Beach in Cambria. We found loads of Moonstones here while the tide was out.

 Luckily, I had purchased rain boots for the kids. They came in very handy when we waded through the tide pools and mushy sand.

 Elephant Seal beach was fun to see. There were only "cute" ones there, no big-nosed males yet. I guess they come later in the summer, thank goodness.

 There were also harbor seals on the beach. These 3 decided to nap together. They're molting which is why they look black in some places. There were docents at the beach talking to the tourists about the seals. Thankfully, they didn't notice my youngest accidentally drop a water bottle in the shrubbery above the hundreds of lazy, sleeping seals. We left soon after...

 There was quite a lot of blubber on that beach. This is only half of it.

 Isn't that the life? Sleep, swim a little, sleep, avoid sharks, molt, and ignore tourists...sounds easy, right?

 We spent a little time with some friends who joined us for a day on their own family vacation. We went to the elfin forest. At first I thought it was the "elephant forest" due to my husband's misunderstanding of the word but, as soon as we observed the mini trees, I knew they can't possibly have been calling us, as visitors, "elephants" so "elfin" seemed to fit better.

Mikayla and Camryn read the map and guided us on the path.

 This grove of trees was so enchanting. They wrapped around and their leaves formed a canopy above you so it was almost like you were in another world. Definitely would have been my pretend playhouse if I were younger. Just beautiful!!

 On our way home, we stopped at Solvang and got a few Scandinavian treats.

Yay for family vacations even if it's only for 4 days. I love time spent with family.