Pismo Trip with the Rossi's

Last week we took a trip to Pismo Beach with the Rossi's.  They had never been before and we decided to invite them to come along since Tyler would soon be leaving for college.  We drove down on Thursday afternoon and showed them around.

 Calissa and Riley Jo enjoying the rooftop terrace.

Sunset and fog!

We went to dinner that night at Old Juan's Cantina and enjoyed some yummy Mexican food.

We woke up the next morning to a beautiful day!  Trav and I went for a run on the beach and then we met everyone for breakfast.

 After breakfast we went down to explore.

Tyler, Parker, Conner

Calissa, Riley, Kyle

 Jen, Trav, Teri, Chris

 After changing into swimsuits, we went back down to the beach to play.  The younger kids played in the sand and water,

while the older kids played Frisbee.

 Chris sat and watched for a while (and kept an eye on the younger ones in the ocean). He was concerned that Teri (or someone else) might try and hit him with the Frisbee so he guarded himself with the skim board. Teri decided to throw it at him, but a lady and her daughter were walking by so she waited until they had gone past.  Evidently, they didn't walk far enough and Teri let go of the Frisbee too late and hit the lady in the arm (from about 5 feet away).  The boys were rolling on the ground laughing.  Luckily, the lady was nice, but we watched Teri with the Frisbee from then on out! 

 After playing Frisbee for a couple of hours, the boys braved the waves (and the freezing cold water). 

 Tyler trying to not get too wet and cold.

  Parker trying to jump over the wave.

 Conner was the only smart one to come back.

 The boys body surfed for quite a while.  Some of the waves were 8-10 feet high!

While on the beach we saw thousands of these blue jellyfish things.  They were all over the place!

 Evidently they are velella velalla and normally come ashore every 7-8 years in the Spring.  It's been about that long but they were coming ashore all up and down the west coast in the summer instead.  They were very pretty and interesting.

After getting out of the icy ocean, the boys headed up to get in the hot tub.  It took a while for their bodies to adjust to the temperature change!

That afternoon we went to lunch at Mo's BBQ, walked around downtown, Tyler and Parker each ate a chocolate covered cricket, and we had some ice cream.  Dinner that night was at the Melodrama.  We saw "Song of the Canyon Kid."  It was a great and funny show with a hilarious vaudeville after.  Glad the Rossi's could come with us!

While walking around town the day before I noticed a sign advertising a Pismo 5K the next morning.  Travis decided to enter.

They started at the Pier and ran out and back.

 As you can see there were quite a few runners.  Trav ended up finishing 27th overall with a 6:44 pace.  He missed 3rd place in his age group by 9 seconds!  He did great!

After checking out of the hotel we headed down to the pier and took a couple of family pictures.

Tyler, Teri, Riley, Kyle, Chris

Then, we decided to rent the surrey bikes.  Uh oh!  Tyler and Parker together ...

with Riley and Calissa on the back! There was quite a bit of screaming by the girls!

The rest of us were on the bigger bike.  (They don't go very fast we learned).

 We had a fun time riding them to the butterfly grove and then racing them along the path.  We crossed the street (not safe) and headed back to town.

 On the way back we found a little park and stopped to play for a while.  

 Having fun on the teeter totter. 

 Parker climbed in the back and let Tyler drive him around the parking lot.

Then, we went back into town and rode to get cinnamon rolls and then returned our bikes.  We did almost tip over a couple of times, but luckily we didn't.  We laughed a lot and had a fun time! 

 We made one last stop at the sand dunes before the Rossi's headed back home.  It was windy and sand was blowing everywhere, but the kids had fun ... 

 and got covered in sand.  We stayed and watched the 2nd melodrama and then headed back home.  We're glad the Rossi's were able to come with us to discover Pismo beach!