4.14.17

We stayed in Capitola so we were close to the beach.  Getting Ella to wake up was the most difficult. But we also had to try to reorganize all of our bags to make it manageable for the future.  I quickly discovered giving Miles some food while in the middle of the bed kept him distracted for a little while.

The hotel didn't have enough carts so I ended up going to the car and getting our wagon to go up and get our luggage.  Ella of course wanted to be a big help and pull her own suitcase. She was too short to pull our blue suitcase but the black one worked. The wheels were set differently in them even though the suitcases were the same size.

When we got to Santa Cruz, we went to the Arcade. Ella had fun and would play different games. The best part was, she didn't actually play them. We didn't spend any money there. Various things would make noises or vibrate so she got as much out of them as if she would have played. Dave even played a few with her.

I wore Miles in the Ergo and either the stroller was empty or Ella hopped into it when we were on the move. I do not recommend baby wearing + wearing a backpack. My shoulders do not like the competing pulling of the straps.

Then we went to the beach. Ella started to go into the water with Dave but then didn't want to. It was cold.

We walked down the pier. I nursed him in the ergo while we were walking along the pier.

Then we went to the boardwalk to eat some lunch.  Miles fell asleep in the Ergo. He didn't even sleep a half hour and then he woke up to eat with us.

Then we were off to drive down Rt 1. We had to drive down then back up since the road is closed.  Rt 1 had a lot of traffic.  The views were amazing. We stopped at the various places where you could stop and take pictures.  Both kids were asleep so we'd take turns going to check out the views. Dave checked out more since it was a bit scary with the heights.  I also took pictures as we were driving.  Dave liked the views a lot.  After we got far enough that we decided to turn around, I drove for the first time on the trip. Dave discovered he could not get comfortable in the seat because it wouldn't go back far enough without hitting Miles's car seat.

We drove to Monterey for the Aquarium.  Ella liked it more than I would have guessed.  Miles liked it when the fish were close to the glass. I was surprised how excited he got when there were a lot of little fish and he could touch the glass.

We went to dinner at a restaurant on our way back to the car. We had to find the secret elevator to get up to it with our stroller. Ella and Miles both ate well at Louie Linguini's.

Then we were off further south. It was close to 8 PM before we were on our way to drive to the super charger.  At the super charger, Dave went to Denny's for food. Then both kids were quite a handful so I complained to Dave that he ditched us for Denny's. He rushed back which took a little bit since he had to get his food. By that point they were content. Of course.

After charging, we headed to the hotel. It was late and both kids were asleep in the car.  It was after 11. We had to get all of our junk into the room which is no easy feat since we were not efficiently packed.  We would slowly get better but not yet. I'm sure we carry more than other travelers too. We had 2 laptops and an iPad along with a power strip, fan, and a duffel bag just of medicines.