Redondo Pier

Even though Redondo Pier is only about 10 miles away, we always favored the other piers somehow.  Well, not today!  

With the rock wall, the water is calmer on the other side so paddle boarding and paddle boats seem to be a popular thing here.  The pier itself is quite nice:

Lots of room to run around!

There are lots of people fishing too.  Graham and Charlie are still determined to fish. Some day!

We walk by the fish cleaning station and this pelican flies right over Graham's head and lands on the table!!!

There are a bunch of Korean and Japanese restaurants serving lots of seafood.  We will have to try one of these next time:

Here's the opposite side of the beach from where the pier is.  You can actually bike the 26-mile trail from Redondo Beach all the way to Santa Monica!

I don't understand how this restaurant shut down though.  It seems to be the perfect location with the view of the beach in the back!

The boys want to go down to the beach but we were not quite planning on it that day. So instead, we opt for shaved ice and Mommy picks up a Boba tea/drink:

Red tougue!  The boys love this stuff!

Phoenix Trip

We are off to Phoenix!  This was a couple of weeks ago now actually.  Bobby finally put in his resignation on Monday, June 11 and the very next day, the company had him turn in his badges and the rest of the company property.  Oh boy, now I have not two but THREE kids to watch over??!

Say "bye bye" to Gate Gourmet!

Hmm... a little lady bug decided to take a little ride with us in the car.  I was going to try and keep it with us but Bobby said it would not make it in the heat.  So we had to let it go out the window :-(

Charlie asked for the camera and he was busy taking selfies and taking photos of his pokemon book!

Everyone is busy with something!  I think it's funny how Graham is now asking for the comics section of the newspaper :-)

6 hours later... the Phoenix skyline.  1 more hour to go!

The next day, we head off to the I.d.e.a Museum.  But first we find lunch in downtown Mesa where we also find a pig bronze sculpture, which I believe is also named "Charlie" :-)

Who knew there was so much going on here in Downtown Mesa!

Once done with lunch, we head over to the I.d.e.a Museum but oh no, there is a special event going on and our "coupon" doesn't allow us free entry! BOOO...!!!

Funny enough, there was also a group of mom's and their kids that are stuck in the same situation.  I managed to get some additional information on where this "coupon" might work, so we ended up at a kid's gym that was on the way home.  Graham and Charlie LOVED this place!!! Oh wait, before that we found an Old Navy (our new fav store!) and bought some "muscle" shirts :-)

Muscle shirts are perfect for places like these... to impress the girls... in the future perhaps :-D

I was hoping Graham would actually jump up towards those bars but he changed his mind after standing there for a minute.  Charlie had his own little Under-6 play area.  I was so glad he didn't fuss over this smaller area because I was so worried that he would get hurt in this larger section:

As if the boys were not tired enough, we head over to the golf club later that afternoon.  The club was hosting "Dinosaur Day" by the pool:

Looking at the photos now, these dinosaurs actually look quite realistic!  The kids were able to play games with the dinos.  As you can see, Graham (in red shirt) has a "bone" in his hand:

Time out for Charlie - bloody nose!

You can clearly see the legs of a human underneath that dino suit.  Good thing it wasn't a hot day.  That person would not be having a good time!

The boys clearly had a good time!

There was a "Jurassic World" movie viewing at the pool later that night but we figured it would have been to scary for Graham and Charlie:

The next morning, where is the sun??!

It's a rainy day!  And Bobby and I have a tee-time at 11am!

For the record, okay - Bobby beat me again.  What??!!! How is that possible when he doesn't even practice/play hardly anymore.  Maybe I am just "buttering" him up until our next match so my victory will taste even sweeter.  MuaaahahahahaHAHA!!! :-P

The clouds sure made for a really pretty sunset:

The next day, Daddy takes the car for service so we are walking to the playground.  Now this is the Arizona heat that I remember!  Look at how red Charlie's face is!

Successful and relaxing few days in Phoenix!  And on the way home, we decided to stop by a dinosaur park in Cabazon (near Palm Springs) along I-10 freeway.  We didn't actually go into the park itself but took a few selfies:

I obviously couldn't quite get it right with those selfies!  Rroooaarrr...!!!

Daddy has a conference call so we walk into a fast food chain restaurant for dessert:

Gosh, that dinosaur actually looks like it could just be roaming outside the restaurant. Ha Ha!!!

The dinosaur is actually a gift shop.  You can see the door at the bottom left, by the tail :-)

By the way, Bobby started his new job this past Monday, June 25th.  Funny enough, it was a company that he had previously worked for so his colleagues that knew him since joked about how he was away for a long sabbatical.  Best part is (other than the increased salary - YES!!!) is we don't have to move! Well, at least not yet.  Our lease is up in October and hopefully there won't be an increase in rent!

Grunion run

So who would have ever thought we would be planning on a trip to the beach late at night to see grunions!  These are little fish that come up to the sand to lay eggs.  Last month when Charlie had his school trip to the Cabrillo Aquarium, the class was able to hatch the eggs by moving the jar of sand and water for a few minutes to simulate the wave movements on the beach.  What a neat project for the kids!
We finally took Graham to the Cabrillo Aquarium recently.  He had a good time too :-)

We decided that we had to check out these grunions that come up to the beach.  It is a hit or miss tonight as it really all depends on the moon (literally!) and normally it is really REALLY late at night - midnight or so. But the suggested time a couple of Wednesdays ago was between 9:30-11:30pm.  I figured that was at least a time that Bobby and I were able to stay late up for.  Ha ha!

We are prepped with sweaters and lights.  I can't believe how some people were still in their dinky swim wear. How are they not cold!?!   Hmm... no grunion sightings...

And then, by about 10:30pm there was the commotion by the shore.  Grunions!!!  Some people were about shin deep with buckets - although supposedly you are only allowed to catch them using your hands.  And supposedly these grunions are yummy when deep fried??!

One of Charlie's friend from school has joined us tonight as well.  His mom was definitely more prepared wearing capri pants and flip-flops.  That's what we will have to do next time! She mentioned that when she was younger, she saw the entire shore/beach full of grunions.  And the fish would all be so shiny from the light of the full moon.

Not many grunions tonight but what a neat experience!!! Definitely one to remember :-)

Happy birthday to me!

My birthday was 2 weeks ago on June 12th.  Glad I made the blog post before the end of June :-)  I have been telling the boys that I turned 24 years old this year.  That should give you a good hint as to exactly how old I am :-D

We decided to celebrate my birthday at an Italian restaurant down by Redondo Beach. Come to find out, the restaurant was opened by one of our school mom's husband!  They are Italian and came out this way over 3 years ago.  He works at a different restaurant now but what a small world!

I had Bob order a cake from a bakery that specializes in bundt cakes. We had one of their cakes recently at a kid's birthday party.  The lemon one was particularly yummy so that's what we ordered.  The waitress took 3 photos for us and all of them were blurry.  Ha!

The restaurant brought me a birthday dessert and Charlie decided to decorate the bundt cake with the strawberries:

YUMMY cake!!! And we barely put a dent into it:

It took me another week to finish up just half of the cake.  Weird but Charlie wasn't particularly so keen on it. He LOVES birthday cakes but maybe this one just didn't have enough colorful icing and decoration??!
Okay, time for the gifts!  A lovely card + a little extra birthday spending money from my in-laws. Thanks!!!  A fancy pair of aviator sunglasses from my sister.  Wooooo....

I thought I had lost my magnetic/copper bracelet but actually found it in the wash a few days later.  Bobby actually planned ahead and had already bought a new one for me.  Nice and shiny!

The boys picked up some interesting tea for me from the mall:

There was also a birthday gift bag from Victoria's Secret. What an awesome birthday! But gosh do I feel old - somehow I had managed to sprain my left thumb, my right knee acts up occasionally, my right elbow is finally feeling better from the sprain during self-defense class MONTHS ago... Phew! Hopefully the list will be shorter by the next birthday.  LOL!!!

Uncle Doug's visit

Bobby's brother came by to visit a couple of weeks ago.  Graham and Charlie were so excited that Uncle Doug was coming by for the weekend! We took him to visit the resort next door for a morning:

 It was a perfect day for some crab viewing by the tide pools:

The boys took the opportunity for some art that is set up occasionally during the weekends at the resort:

Not too shabby!  This one is Charlie's:

And this one is Graham's:

Later that day, we are off to "Crepe Street" for some beach time:

 And for some crepe of course! :-D

The next day, we are off to the Dodger's Stadium!

Thankfully traffic wasn't too bad so we arrived pretty early.  There were already so many people walking in! 

Time for a we-fie!!!

The kids got some pretty nifty sweatbands.  I am jealous!

As usual, it is nacho chips for Graham:

Cotton candy for Charlie:

 And some yummy pulled pork on yummy Hawaiian sweet bread for Mommy. YUMMM!!!!

Can't forget to take a photo with the Dodgers Dog:

As usual, every game starts with the National Anthem.  I like how Charlie puts his hand on his heart - just how they do it at school.  But yet, he is still holding on to his pretzel with his other hand. Ha ha!

These seats are awesome!!!

It is basically a snack fest for Graham and Charlie.  I have to say - that frozen lemonade was pretty darn good:

We take a break halfway as it does get quite hot sitting in the sun.  And it was only 76F!!?!

Who knew the Dodgers actually started out in Brooklyn!

Graham has some soft serve ice-cream and oh, Charlie did have his churrrrrrrrrrrrros too.  We kinda actually miss that guy back at the Arizona Diamondbacks stadium!

The people sitting next to us forgot their mist-spraying fan.  I finally let Graham use it after waiting for about 20 minutes.  And just about 5-10 minutes after that, one of their kids showed up to claim it.  Bummer!!! Ha ha!

The people in front of us decided to leave, so our seats get even better :-)

What an AWESOME day with Uncle Doug!!!

On the way out, we take photos with the Tommy Lasorda bobblehead.  Lasorda is an American baseball icon - successfully managing the LA Dodgers from 1977 to 1996. 

 Photo op with the Golden Glove:

After the baseball game, we head out to Chinatown for a bit.  There wasn't much happening other than a quick photo with Bruce Lee:

So we made a couple more turns and ended up in little Mexico on Olvera Street.  Unfortunately, I don't have any photos because my camera ran out of battery!  There was definitely a lot more going on here - there were restaurants and also an open market selling gifts, clothes, shoes, and lots of knick-knacks.  We did pick up a little baby guitar for the boys although we are having a tough time tuning it. Guess we got what we paid for!
The oldest building in Los Angeles is situated here as well - the Avila Adobe.  It was built by Francisco Avila, a wealthy cattle rancher in 1818. The adobe walls are 2 1/2 to 3 ft thick!

What a fun week with Uncle Doug.  Please come and visit us again! :-)