31 Days of Flashbacks: Train Trip West: Day #9

Friday, August 12, 2011
In which we watched sea lions play, played at the beach, met up with more family members, had a family picnic, picked up Glenn, and slept at the hotel.
On Friday we got up and had breakfast on the ship on the ship again. After breakfast we watched sea lions and a pelican playing off the deck of the ship. It was so fun to see sea lions playing in the wild. I'd only ever seen them at the Seneca Park Zoo.

two sea lions playing near the boat

This pelican was scared off by the approaching sea lion

hard to see but the sea lion out there was just floating on it's side with his flipper up in the air

a tugboat guiding a bigger boat into the marina

 Later in the morning we packed up and went to do some laundry at a laundrymat. The kids, Steph, Steve and Debbie played at a park while K, Doug, Jack, and I were doing the laundry. After all of our clothes got cleaned we headed back to the Vagabond to check in and get ready to go to the beach.

We spent the afternoon playing at Balboa Beach. The waves were HUGE so we didn't let any of the kids go out very far (I think that the waves were so big mostly because of the steep incline of the beach). The waves still took all of us out several times. All small children had to be holding an adult's hand as the waves came in because they were so powerful we didn't want them to take the kids out. I counted noses after each wave to make sure that we still had all the kids we were supposed to. We also built a big sand pile and set about making moats and other pools to try to protect it from the rising tide. We were successful for quite a while :).

oh, no, here comes a big one!

several downed ocean-lovers after a big wave

 After fun at the beach we headed back to the hotel for a barbeque at the little picnic area. Steve's brother John and his sons Enoch and Timothy, Bernie's daughter Roxanne and her daughters Jennifer and Jade, and Bernie's other daughter Lonna, her husband Caleb and their 3- Fira, Timber, and Lane joined in the family fun today bringing our total up to 30 people.

barbecue on the hotel patio with the family

After supper I took a quick nap and then headed to LAX with Stephanie to pick up Glenn (yay!!!) for his midnight arrival from Syracuse. That night Hannah slept w/ Aunt Sue, Caleb slept on the chair in Sue and Steph's room, Abigail slept on the chair in our room while Steve and Debbie took one bed and Lydia, Glenn, and I took the other.

Click these links to read about Day #1, Day #2, Day #3, Day #4, Day #5, Day #6, Day #7, and Day #8.