Spring Break, The End

Although we had planned on going to the beach on Friday, it was overcast and damp. So, more morning TV, a trip to Chuck E. Cheese's for Evan and the kids (he's a saint) and I got to see the Hunger Games, which I enjoyed even with the 18mo kid sitting on her mom's lap next to me. Sigh. Oscar went to his pal's house for a sleepover and Evan and I watched that Justin Timberlake running out of time movie, and my entire memory of the movie is JT gesturing wildly to his arm and screaming "We're running out of time!" Seriously, he did that like every seven minutes.

On Saturday, Evan caught a 9:15 am screening of the Hunger Games while the little guys and I watched a whole lot of TV and packed a picnic. We picked up Oscar from his friend's house and drove an hour to Leo Carrillo Beach, as suggested by my friend Ashley. After 30 minutes of freeway driving, we got onto Malibu Canyon Road, and it was spectucular. The road is cut into impossibly huge mountains and has some harrowing curves. (I was glad Evan was driving!)



We even got to go through a long tunnel bored out of a mountain. Even the kids thought it was cool.

And then we turned onto the Pacific Coast Highway.

Malibu is really beautiful. And really expensive. While we were driving around, I checked out the real estate prices on my iPhone. Nothing under 6m and many of them 25m.

We found the beach, paid a reasonable $12 parking fee, and walked under the highway and found the beach.

 Oscar was not feeling well. We realized, after talking to him, that he hadn't eaten in 24 hours. Great. This is why I have to follow him around and force feed him an entire chicken over the course of a school week. Luckily I'd packed lots of crackers and protien in his lunch, and he went from clammy and lethargic to running and jumping in about an hour. Until then, he sat on his chair and shoveled in cheese sticks like a consumptive patient at a seaside resort.

The great thing about this beach is the tide pools. It's very rocky and when the tide goes out, all sorts of wonderful creatures are left in the pools. It's not the best beach for swimming, but there were a bunch of surfers out. We saw dozens of starfish in all different colors.

 Purple and green sea urchins.

 A sea slug. Really really cool, really really gross.

 Tons of hermit crabs.

 There's Mr. Slug, back in his home. Blech.

 Arlo's bucket of hermit crabs.

 Lots of different kinds of seaweed, and lots of it.

 The Goose was very proud of herself for picking up a starfish.

Absolute coolest: octopus! We saw this guy (about a foot and a half long, head to tentacle) swim about and then bury himself under a rock. We learned to look for the spurts of water that octopus spit out every so often when they are under rocks, and then we found tons of them, mostly babies.

 Evan and Arlo tried to fly a kite, but it just wasn't happening.

 Arlo decided to go rock climbing.

 He's that little dot of blue on top of that huge rock.  He's actually a really good scrabbler. Might have to do some rock-climbing in the future. He and I explored a cave and ruined a couple shots of an engagement photo shoot. Honestly, they were lucky Arlo didn't put an octopus down her dress.

 After all the climbing, a man's got to have some privacy in his fort.

How many starfish can you spot in this picture? There are at least four.

 On the way home, I made the kids draw some of the animals they saw.

 Arlo's starfish.

 Arlo's hermit crab.

 Arlo's plan for the next day: watch TV, go for a bike ride, go on a hike.

 Oscar's star.

 Crab.

 Fish.

 I don't remember seeing this creature, but maybe it was in the cave?

We came home and everyone kind of got to bed earlyish. Oscar and I finished reading The Borrowers this week, we're starting on The Wizard of Oz. The little kids are mostly ignoring us but Arlo creeps over to listen every so often.

Sunday, it rained. A lot. We've only had less than 6-8 rainy days since we've been here, but when it rains, it's a humdinger. I did some grocery shopping and was overwhelmed and freaked out in Whole Foods enough to reschedule some friends coming over for dinner that evening. Oscar and Evan saw John Carter, which they LOVED. I took the little kids to the library and restocked Oscar's collection of Calvin and Hobbes collections. We got everyone to bed almost painlessly and I made some carbonara and a salad and we watched Mad Man. Zu Bisou Bisou!

It was a lovely break. I'm glad we had lots of excursions, but also lots of lying about and doing nothing time. The boys got off to school this morning (although we had to wake Oscar up, forcibly, three times) and The Goose and I are enjoying our quiet morning house.