On Tuesday night, we pulled into the KOA late. On Wednesday morning, the boys jumped up and went to play all day. They went to the playground, jumped on the inflatable bounce area, met some new kids next to us, rode scooters, swam at the pool, rode the choo choo and shot cap guns. Later that night, we had a fire and relaxed outside. The temperature was perfect. We didn’t have to run the A/C at all.
Thursday, we had another full day of fun planned.
In the morning, we drove into Santa Cruz for surfing school. It was a 2 hour session for Jason Jr. and Nathan.
They had to learn all the basics of paddling out, balance, position and getting up on the long board. Just putting on the wetsuits seemed to be quite a chore. The weather was perfect and there were many other surfers in the waves. The beach in Santa Cruz was mostly rocks so we climbed carefully to a spot where we could see the boys in action.
Jason was the first one to get a wave and ride it in. As with most sports, it seemed to come so naturally to him. Nathan wasn’t far behind him on another wave. A little while later, Nathan got too close to the shore and the waves kept him from getting back out with the others. He was tossed around a bit and hit some rocks so he decided to take a rest on shore for a bit. One of the instructors came and retrieved him and he finished the lesson like a champ. We were so proud that he didn’t give up! We realized that the tide was coming in and our beach area was shrinking so we gathered our belongings and moved around the corner to higher ground. After washing all the sand off of everyone and watching Sam Bob throw a major fit because he was cold, we hopped in the RV and went to the boardwalk amusement park that was over 100 years old.
We ate seafood at the pier then let the kids get on some rides. The one thing that I thought was really special was the indoor merry go round which was on the National Historic Register. The horses were beautifully decorated and had real hair for the tails. There was a lot of shiny brass on the ride and the music was coming from the Wurlitzer pianos playing nearby. This was definitely a cool place to go visit!
Friday morning, we had to pack up and head back East but not before doing laundry, a little maintenance in the cargo trailer and getting an oil change on the RV for the first time. Yes, we had already put over 4000 miles on it since purchasing it in Colorado a month ago.
