A Day at the Coast (now with pictures!)

For the Fourth of July, we went on a little day trip.

Here are the kids on the drive to the coast:

(Pay no attention to the date at the bottom of the picture. It seems the digital camera date feature is too hard a feature for me to figure out. This was indeed taken on July 4th.)

Notice the looks of anticipation on their faces. Also, notice how nice and clean and presentable they look. And also, notice the wireless headphones. Which meant they got to watch Chicken Little, and mom and dad got to listen to the radio and talk. It made for such a pleasant ride!

Next, we went to a Battleship. One from WWII - and it was very big, very big. We went into the bowels of the ship, got very turned around, and then could not find our way back out again. It was hot and still inside that ship, and once we came up onto the deck the hot, humid air had never tasted so sweet. When we were blocked off by various chains and DO NOT ENTER signs, I feared we would be required to go back down into the pit of hell (inside the ship) and thought I would weep if I had to go back down. Luckily, we found a way off. And I thanked the good Lord we were free. Here are the kids after the whole ship adventure. They were begging to leave at this point.

Our next stop was an Aquarium. It was small, crowded and very hot there too. But it was nice. And that's basically all I have to say about it.

(Notice how hot the kids look.)

After that picture was taken, the whole family went back to the van and changed into their bathing suits. In the freakin' minivan! I had never done that before, and would not normally recommend trying to dress in an automobile, but we were desperate, and the beach was right next to the aquarium, so it was desperate times. Then we went to the beach.

(Insert beach picture here.)

I forgot to bring the camera with us from here on out. So the tour in pictures has come to an end. But let me say, the kids loved the beach. This was surprising to us because the previous times we went, they didn't even want to walk out on the sand. This time, however, they not only played with the sand, but they also went into the water! Next time we go to the beach, we are getting a hotel room and staying at least overnight. It was that fun. And the kids were so good. They hardly complained - and they had plenty of opportunity to do so.

Hope you enjoyed your day - and now we're going to spend today trying to rest up. It was an exhausting trip. Some of us may be just a teensy bit cranky. (Oh who am I kidding - all of us here are very cranky and now I'm going to go consume more coffee that any single human being should ever consume. Cheers.)