Beach Day #2

We started off day 2 at the beach with a field trip! There were a ton of strawberry fields around, and we had been drooling over the fresh strawberries all week, so we found a u-pick field and went. It had been on my list of things to do this summer anyway, I just happened to do it in California. The kids had fun filling up their buckets with strawberries, having contests to find the biggest strawberry. They also let you sample the strawberries while you were picking, so we got to eat and pick, eat and pick. Very tasty. My strawberries that I have grown this year have been tasty, but these were so much easier and more plentiful!

My Niece checking out her collection:

My brother Michael enjoying a couple of strawberries.

Working hard in the fields, ahhh....




Look closely at the box my brother is holding. I have laughed and laughed about it. So many meanings!

That night we decided to go to Santa Cruz. We drove to the Boardwalk, and one of the highlights of the night was a killer parking job I did. I was driving my Dad's new Honda, and the only spot was a little spot I had to parallel park in. I am not a very good parker and avoid parallel parking at almost all costs. Plus I was nervous driving the new car. But I pulled it in in one shot. So amazing. Weird I know, but I am proud.
Then we hit the rides. They have the oldest functioning roller coaster there, which is the highlight of the whole place. There is an actual fear of death on it, because it is all wooden, rickety, old, and fast. I love it. I got to ride it with my 7 year old nephew who loved it! I was wondering how he would do with it, and as we went through the dark tunnel in the beginning I just heard him laughing. I knew he would be fine then. The whole ride I could just hear him going "Whoa, whoa, WHOA!!!" and then laughing. It was hysterical!

We went on this sky ride that took us across the park. In the first car is my SIL Kristen and 2 of her kids. Behind them is my SIL Jen and my niece Abigail. I took this from the car in front of them.

While we were on the sky ride, I looked over and saw this. There was so much pollution there that it wasn't very bright. We thought it was the moon at first because you could look directly at it. But no, it was the sun. Very cool looking.



We got to play on the bumper cars. I don't usually put pictures of myself up, so I decided to include this one...

This is my attempt at a ferris wheel picture without a tripod. It is hard because you can get a really cool effect by leaving the shutter open for a long time, but you have to hold very still, which can only really be accomplished with a tripod. But I tried to hand hold it and it looks cool, but the wiggly lines are because my hand was moving a little.