Santa Cruz

Santa Cruz is almost 3 hours away and we were in the mood to make this more than a day trip so we got a hotel this time.  Staying in a hotel is one of the most exciting parts for our kids.  We got in around 9 and they spent the next hour jumping from one bed to the other.  I love this time with our kids (although I often dream of being able to go to the hot tub with Chris).  The next morning we had breakfast and after discovering that I had forgotten Jane and Peter's swimsuits, made a stop at Target and settled for what they had available.  We got to Natural Bridges State Beach by 10 and it was already warm.  The water was painfully cold, though.  The kids never seem to really notice although they didn't get much more than their legs wet.  Alice is the one that amazes me the most.  She didn't even flinch at the ice cold water and couldn't be kept from chasing the waves.  Thank goodness she has such a wonderful daddy that loves to chase her around and stayed with her the whole time.  I couldn't handle even my feet in that cold water.  We climbed around on the rocks and checked out the tide pools but the water wasn't low enough to really see much.  Our kids just wanted to play in the sand anyway.  It really was such a nice beach day and we kept saying "Can you believe it's the beginning of February?". When everyone got hungry for more than snacks, we cleaned up and grabbed some lunch.  Then we headed over to the boardwalk to walk around the amusement park area.  We purchased some tokens so the kids could ride some rides and then discovered they weren't tall enough for the ones we thought they qualified for.  They were plenty happy to ride the cars ride... all except for Alice, though.  We thought she would love it and hate to be excluded from something her brother and sister were doing, but we were wrong.  Once it started moving, she reached for us and bawled.  They stopped the ride and gave us our money back, but of course when Jane and Peter road the carousel, Alice was sad to be left out.  Sometimes you can't win with that girl.