No Labor Required

James was able to take off this weekend, so we headed up to our favorite place. Morro Bay of course! Brielle wants to live there forever and never come home. I don't blame her. We spent Labor Day weekend relaxing and playing.

No trip is complete without plenty of time at the beach. Even in the foggy weather, it is still fun to play in the sand.

And go for walks

We went to the sand dunes for happy hour. We had pita chips and hummus. Ethan ate sand. Gross.

The sun came out. It was such a nice day to watch the waves!

Morro Rock is in the background, covered in fog...but it is there.

Hearst Castle

This time we went up to Hearst Castle. I've never been and James hasn't been there in a really long time.

Here we are in front of the Neptune pool. It was hot and sunny and the pool was very inviting. If you work or volunteer there you can actually swim there!

It was fascinating to learn more about the history of William Randolph Hearst and the Hearst Family.

While we toured the castle, Brielle and Ethan spent quality time with their Grandma and Papa Finlay. Brielle was NOT excited when we came back. She had so much fun she wanted to keep playing with them.

La Purisima Mission

Right when we got to the La Purisima Mission, James found a horned toad which the kids were really interested in.

We also got to see the other animals that live on the mission. Sheep, goats, horses, pigs, chickens and turkeys.

We decided we wouldn't want to live in a straw hut, but it was a nice place to sit and relax in the shade.

This mission has many, many rooms with displays of what it was like to live in the 1820s.

While there we met a man that worked on the reconstruction project of this mission. He is currently 91 years old. He had very old pictures of what it looked like when he helped build it when he was 16 years old!

Solvang

We stopped and walked around the Danish village of Solvang. It is such a fun tourist city with lots of fun shops to look in. We went in a clock shop and a candle making store.

We also couldn't resist sharing a hot fudge sunday at the ice-cream parlor. Yum.

I still can't figure out why in the world Ethan likes to eat sand. The texture is so gross to me. Obviously though, he likes it. Hopefully the phrase about '...dirt don't hurt' is true!

At first Ethan thought it was funny that we were running with him away from the waves. And then he was frustrated. He really, really wanted to jump in and swim.