I 🧡 California, part tres

On to the last leg of our July 4 CA road trip!

We anticipated the girls needing a stop between Cambria and LA so we did a small detour to Solvang. Wow, I haven't been back here in years and it was MUCH bigger than I remember it being. Super fancy - I even saw a ramen shop! Anyway, we stopped to stretch our legs and get some ice cream.

We timed our drive very poorly though because we hit tons of traffic going through Santa Barbara. The kids were antsy and we were annoyed, which led us to pulling off to visit the beach near Summerland. It was super nice to feel warm soft sand in our toes and the girls were not happy to leave it when we finally got back into the car later.

Nora zoning out.

Kids playground at the beach.

Shoes off! We were also the only ones at the beach.

The next morning was the main event of our trip - the July 4 parade in Sierra Madre! This was the whole reason we took a trip down to CA and it was pretty neat. The parade route itself felt pretty long - maybe a mile or so? It was much longer than the Orcas parade that we usually go to. It was a nice slow drive in Grandpa's truck, with the gals in the back waving flags and yelling "Happy 4th!" while the boy were up in the cab honking the horn.

To cool down from the car ride, we went to the public pool and played around all afternoon. I wish I had pics to show because the girls had such a fun time and Nora was getting brave enough to swim on her own for a big at a time. It didn't hurt that the water was nice and warm!

Getting ready for the parade!

Evie's a champion flag waver

On Friday, we drove out to Ventura to check out Grandpa's sailboat. It was the first time the girls have gone sailing (we usually just go in the powerboat here in Seattle) and we couldn't have picked a better day to go! It was a beautiful day to be out in the water - warm but it felt really nice to have the ocean breeze once we were out on the water. We had quite an adventure out there - it started off with the Coast Guard doing a routine checkup and boarding our boat and ended with us doing some circles out in the ocean while Dad and Grandpa tried to figure out the best way to catch the wind back in.

Quick detour through Valencia. Do you recognize this house? I barely did.

Fun to be out sailing!

Here come the coast guard!

On the lookout for dolphins and seals.

Trying her hand at steering the boat.

Cuteness walking back to the car.

After sailing, Scott and I and the girls drove a bit further to Santa Barbara for the night. Scott's been wanting to take the girls to see Westmont and since we were already in Ventura, it was an easy decision to get a hotel room for the night and check out the city. I don't remember much of the city since it's been so long since I explored it, so it was fun to spend a day walking around.

Of course, beach time was on our list of to-do's. We tried out the beach right in downtown as well as Arroyo Burro beach. I actually didn't like the downtown beach much at all - super dirty and hard packed sand (IMHO). Arroyo Burro was better but way crowded. The girls weren't picky at all though and enjoyed playing around in the water.

We also went to the Santa Barbara Mission for a bit. This was my first time there and it was pretty much what I expected - some pretty grounds with a big church. It made for some good photo ops, but the girls were pretty bored.

And, lastly, we DID stop by Westmont. Actually, we drove through it since Nora fell asleep and Evie was being a grump and did not want to walk around. That's okay though because the campus changed enough that Scott got lost a few times!

All in all, we packed a LOT into our week and had such a great time. It makes me miss California so much. Sigh. Until next time, CA!