California, Day 4

Saturday, otherwise known as Day 4 (I'm not counting the day we arrived) was my first non-work day so we made the most of it by driving all over Southern California. On Friday night, we stayed overnight in the cradle of surfing, Huntington Beach. Our hotel was in a fantastic location, right on Pacific Coast Highway, across from the beach, so we walked along the beach Saturday morning up to the pier and a little shop/restaurant area. Since Marilu had never eaten at an IHOP (International House of Pancakes for those of you unaware of such quintessential American businesses), that's where we had breakfast. Even Lucas got to join in the fun as he had a pancake with a face made of strawberries and whipped cream on it. Here we see him trying to eat the creamer container from Marilu's coffee.


I took the following shot from the Huntington Beach pier. There were a LOT of beach volleyball nets set up, and an equally large number of people playing beach volleyball. Since I'm not the kind of person who voluntarily gets up at 8 in the morning on a weekend, these people perplexed me, but to each their own. At least I could blame Lucas. Oh, for the single guys out there: beach volleyball girls? Uh, pretty hot. Not that I was paying attention or anything. :)

(If you click on the picture to expand it, you can see our hotel way in the background.)


After Huntington Beach, we drove a little north to Lomita in order to visit Lucas's great grandmother (my grandmother on my dad's side). In this first picture, Lucas and my grandmother take a look at each other.


All we're missing in this next picture is my dad, and we'd be representing four generations.


And here's Lucas with his mom and great grandma. For you Eastern Canadians, if you look close, you may notice the St. John's shirt my grandmother is wearing. See, we don't all think of your country as a third world nation. One of these days, I even think you should be allowed to use our restrooms. *ducks and hides*


Finally, we drove up to Santa Monica, which is where we stayed that night. The first thing we did was head down to the world famous Santa Monica pier. The pictures are so-so since Lucas spent the majority of the time ignoring the camera and gawking at the sights around him. Who can blame him? There was a lot going on.


We then walked around the 3rd Street Promenade, a fairly large restaurant and shopping district. It was in this area that we bought Lucas his first piece of expensive clothing, a $50 hoodie with a monkey on it from the creatively titled children's store "This Little Piggy Wears Cotton." Expect to see that in tomorrow's update.

We went to a sports bar for dinner at a fun place called Yankee Doodle's. In a preview of his eating habits since we returned to Canada, Lucas got pretty messy with his dinner.


I'll wrap up with this great shot of mom and son from Yankee Doodle's.