11.11.2013

Arriving In California

We had to leave our house crazy early in the morning on Wednesday, October 23 as our flight departed at 6:10 am. The boys were a little groggy as we loaded them into the car.

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It was hard to judge when we really needed to arrive at the airport since Columbia Regional is so small. We knew we didn't need to be as early as we would if we were leaving out of KC or St. Louis. But we actually arrived before they had even opened up the security line. We didn't have to wait too long though. Then, we were off to California via Texas.

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We had smooth travels on both of our flights and arrived safely in San Diego on time. We had a rental car reservation. Unfortunately, the company was not located on sight. So, we had to call for the courtesy van and wait. The boys seemed to find riding in the van an adventure...maybe since it was their first car ride without car seats.

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While I filled out paperwork, the boys enjoyed a snack.

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We headed straight for our condo, which was about 30 miles north of San Diego, during which time the boys were able to take a short nap. I knew we would be arriving at the condo before their normal check-in time but we decided to see if the room was ready but it wasn't.

However, since our condo was only a short walk to the beach, we decided it would be a great time to let the boys run off some steam! Our condo was actually located on the harbor, so we walked through the harbor to the beach. There were some pretty fancy boats on the harbor though! And Garytt really enjoyed looking over the edge and watching the sea gulls below.

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Justin also played with his panoramic feature on his phone.

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Just past the harbor, we found...THE BEACH!

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The weather was beautiful and the views were awesome.  (Ok, maybe the euphoria was due in part to the fact that we had been traveling all day and were thankful to be out in the open air...but it was a nice day.)
 
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We could even see the pier that Oceanside is famous for. It's one of the longest piers and it has a restaurant at the end.

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The beach wasn't very crowded, but there were a lot of surfers in the water. Justin took the boys a little closer to the water so they could see the surfers better.

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I don't think the boys were that impressed by the surfers. They just wanted to roll around in the sand. So, they came back towards the picnic tables and Justin and I let them play.

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After a while, we received a call that our room was ready. So, we headed back to the condo, which we had a nice view of from the beach.

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Although we didn't seem to take any pictures of the inside of our condo, we did take some of the view from our balcony.

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Of course, after all that sand, the boys definitely needed a bath. They each received a surprise before bath time...a Disney wash cloth. Garytt's was Mater and Westyn's was Mickey and Donald. They loved them and got them excited to get a bath!  (Gotta love Dollar Tree!)

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Before long it was time to get some rest for our fun adventures to come!

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