Spring Break in SoCal

While Bruce toiled away on Project Loon, the boys and I spent the last half of Spring Break week in lovely Laguna Beach with the Bannings. My plan was to leave early-ish on Thursday so that we would arrive by evening. As always, we didn’t get moving fast enough and while we made good time most of the way, we hit a traffic standstill as soon as we got to the 210 freeway. I was pretty depressed when I checked Google Maps only to find out that it was going to take another four hours to get to Laguna. So, we improvised and we stopped in Altadena and had a visit with the Heffernans. Or at least some of them — Jerri was at work and couldn’t get out of it, as valiantly as she tried. The kids had a great time on the trampoline …

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… and the three youngest crazies went in the pool. After that we went to Yang Chow for dinner and had some fun with chopsticks.

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We finally hit the road again a little after 8:00 and we still hit traffic. We did finally make it though and after a good night’s sleep all four of the kids were raring to go on Friday and we spent some great time at the beach.

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Later we enjoyed a ridiculously beautiful sunset on the deck.

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On Saturday we ventured to Newport Beach and had our traditional visit to the pier and lunch at Ruby’s Diner.

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Then a visit to the arcade.

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Then we rode bikes to The Wedge.

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There was, of course, another beautiful sunset.

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And a birthday dinner for Finn who turned eight the next day.

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(That’s Paper Plate Bruce in the picture — Cari’s solution to Bruce not being able to be there in reality.)

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On Sunday, we packed up and everyone took a little time to hang out with Chester, the world’s most patient dog.

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Then we took a trip to the candy store for road trip supplies. Finn got to have his first legal drive without a booster seat.

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We left around noon and stopped in Pasadena at Zankou Chicken for lunch. Oh, how we’ve missed Zankou. I told Bruce we may have to move back for Zankou alone.

We hit tons of traffic on the way home too, including a brush fire on the 5 which caused quite a delay. We arrived home a little after 9:00, totally exhausted. But, as always, the time with friends is well worth the hours on the road.