So this is one of those LONG posts. One of those posts where I'm basically just putting all the pictures I've taken from an event in one post and telling the story through those pictures because I have the WORST MEMORY EVER and in a week I'll be forgetting WHY Lil Miss looked HELLA crazy at me at Mel's Diner and I laughed so hard it hurt.

All of that to say ... this is a PICTURE HEAVY POST and it's mostly for me and my sad little mind :)

This weekend we had only Lil Miss since our older kids were with their other parents so we decided to take off to the coast. We decided to stay in Half Moon Bay and take the long way down through the city.

We stopped off at the Palace of Fine Arts first. There is so much to do in the city and so much to see. This place is SO beautiful! Behind it is the Exploratorium. We've taken all of the kids before but Lil Miss was just a baby back then, so we thought it would be fun to take just her :)

On the way in we passed the pond and it was FULL of life! There were HUGE fish ...

a BUNCH of turtles swimming around ...

And a mama duck with 6 baby ducks! They were SOOOO cute!! They were still all fuzzy! It was funny watching her try to keep her babies close and watch them, I could COMPLETELY feel her frustration ;)

The Exploratorium is a very hands on, sciencey type place and the kids LOVE it!

Lil Miss just ran from one thing to the next and loved seeing how everything worked.

LOL

She was running from one thing to the next and loved playing with all of the exhibits.






Except the potty water fountain. She wanted NO part of that, LOL!

Hubs and her had a GREAT time. He's really into all the sciencey stuff, so he was helping her with some of the exhibits ... I was mostly taking pictures ;)

She REALLY liked this one! I really liked that it was hooked up to headphones ;)

This place is just BEYOND enormous. It's so beautiful, I just love going here :)


Lil Miss asked for a picture "by the purpley flowers" :)

After we were done at walking around the Palace of Fine Arts, we headed down Highway 1 to Half Moon Bay.

Our room. Not too bad! It's 5 blocks from the beach and 3 blocks from downtown. We got it for a pretty good deal since it was last minute on Memorial Day weekend ;)

We were going to go to the beach but the weather started to take a turn. It got really windy and the clouds looked pretty ominous. It's a good thing we didn't walk out there cause about an hour later, it was RAINING.

Instead we decided to take Lil Miss and get her some dinner and some play time at the McDonalds a block down from us.

Their little indoor play area was pretty awesome!

She had fun and got to get out some her energy before we headed out to OUR dinner :)

She got a kids meal (which is a real treat!)

She even got a SODA! LOL Can you say BRIBERY?! We just wanted her to stay awake and be good while we were out at dinner ;)

After a whole troop of people wet and pissy from the beach rolled in she was done playing, we went back to the hotel and got ready to head out to OUR dinner :)

We've never been able to make it to the Half Moon Bay Brewing Co. before so we were SUPER excited to go this time!

It had JUST stopped raining when we got there so the porch was empty and there was about an hour long wait for a table. But we were prepared! We brought all manner of crayons, coloring books, and Leapster games to keep her in good spirits and she did GREAT!

The place is located right in the harbor area and the weather had cleared up nicely! So we had a great place to sit next to the big ol fire pit and enjoy a glass of wine ... or 2 ;)

Once inside we ordered up our dinner and OH MY. Seriously they have some AMAZING food!

And the wine wasn't bad either ;) We were right in the corner and had a great view. We also got to hear the great blues band too! And were just far enough away that Lil Miss didn't complain about it being too loud ;)

Especially once she had her brownie sundae! Ok ... now I am not exaggerating when I say this brownie sundae is in the Top 5 BEST THINGS I'VE EVER HAD IN MY MOUTH. Seriously. There was a ribbon of the best caramel EVER running through the brownie and I swear it was like the clouds parted and heaven itself shown down upon it.

After we were stuffed beyond belief we sat outside by the fire while we waited for our cab. There's just something about the smell of ocean, it just makes everything you do special :)

In the morning we headed over for the breakfast at the hotel and loaded up on waffles, muffins, scones, and apples (gotta throw SOMETHING healthy in there ;) before heading out!

We decided to grab some sandwiches for lunch on the beach so we ran into the local grocery store and hippy mart, New Leaf. Basically it's like a Whole Foods, and it's BEAUTIFUL. I love these places, you can find such great stuff here that you just can't find at SaveMart :-/ Out here, Whole Foods actually has some competition! There are stores like this everywhere! Man I wish we had some in the valley!

We headed south in search of a beautiful beach ... didn't take too long ;) We actually found this one right next to the Ritz Carlton and OH MY LET ME TELL YOU ... that place is CRAZY AWESOME. I mean the bottom floor rooms EACH have a fire pit outside their door and THIS for the view! AMAZING.

I'm reminded of how lucky I really am to live here. We love to just jump in the car and go exploring like this. California is SO beautiful and so full of amazing things to do! Sure the taxes are high, the hippies stink, and the politics is WAY too left for me ... but then you have this ...

and this!

and places like THIS!!!!

It makes it totally worth it to me :)

We ran in the waves and got out toes wet ...


and played in the sand ...

and relaxed, just listening to the waves, and enjoyed our lunch.

At the top in the corner is the tip of the hotel ... WHAT A VIEW.

Lil Miss and daddy built a castle ...

that needed LOTS of "flag poles" ...

LOTS of flag poles LOL

Once it was time to head home, we made one last stop at the first beach we took Lil Miss too, she was 2 months old ;) We start em early round here! It was a little too windy to stay and play, but we got the picture ;)

On the way back through the city we were having some trouble keeping our eyes open! We were just EXHAUSTED! So we stopped off at Mel's Drive In Diner for a treat!

Lil Miss was having some trouble waking up despite the promise of ice cream. I was trying to get a picture and this one came out pretty cute but ...

THIS one made me laugh SO hard. I asked her to "smile PRETTY" and she said "I AM. Can't you see my EYES!" LOL

She's so funny ;)

We had enjoyed some awesome ice cream and then hit the road!


We stopped for dinner at the Black Bear Inn and WOW their food is awesome! We had some of the best diner like burger's I've had a LOOOONG time!

She sure is getting good at taking pictures ifIdosaysomyself!

We had SO much fun this weekend! As much as I miss my girls when they're not with me, I really do enjoy the times we have with just our little family of 3 :)