Exploring with Grandma & Grandpa

We had more fun with Grandma and Grandpa at the Exploration Station in Grover Beach. It's a small science museum built in an old fire station. Many of the exhibits had been designed and built by Cal-Poly Students. There were structures to build and test against "earthquakes,"

machines to operate & shapes to pick up,

gears to arrange and puzzles to solve,

physics to test with marbles and a pinball shot,

skeletons to assemble,

and reflections to manipulate.

Maggie and I had a ball playing with this mirror.

 

Seriously. We were having a good time.

We think we got pretty creative & silly.

Our cheeks hurt from laughing.

The next day we ventured to Morro Bay to explore in a GIANT canoe.

All EIGHT of us fit in a single canoe. It felt so much more stable than your typical tippy canoe. Everyone helped paddle and we traveled all over the bay.

  

Here's Morro Rock:

These sea lions were just relaxing on a pier in the middle of the bay.

We had lunch at Burger King the day before and Gunnar wore his crown constantly for a couple days. (Well, we made him take it off for church.) Isn't he cute?

We also saw several otters. This group of four was hanging out together on some seaweed and they were all quite curious as our large canoe slipped past. Aren't they cute?

We had a really fun time canoeing through the bay and even successfully made landfall twice. Once we needed to let out a few people to use the restroom, and then I got out with all of the children on the sandy peninsula that is the protective arm of land that creates Morro Bay. We ran around in our bare feet for a few minutes while Damon and his parents paddled and met us further down the beach.

It was a beautiful perfect day in Morro Bay. The sun was shining but it wasn't hot. We finished the afternoon by walking up the hill from the bay to a farmer's market and buying some fruit and homemade goodies.

In between our Grover Beach and Morro Bay excursions Damon and I left the children with his parents and went into San Luis Obispo for dinner and an overnight stay at a hotel. We had intended to make such a trip on the weekend of our 13th anniversary in June. Instead, we moved that weekend. Damon surprised me on our family trip by planning our own vacation within a vacation. We wandered downtown SLO, taking in a bit of an outdoor concert, having Italian food on a patio, and then getting gelato. The next morning we even went for a run together before having breakfast, showering, and returning to the family in Shell Beach.