A weekend in L.A.

About a month ago (I'm struggling to catch up on our fun family events!),Rusty & Kim Hurd and Joe & I went to California for a little "beach weekender." It was a lot of fun and playing in the water was SO great. Once we finally navigated through the INSANE amount of traffic, we were able to go to some pretty great beaches. Kim and I hit the farmer's market on Huntington Beach one day, and I have to say that I have NEVER in my life tasted strawberries so sweet. It was candy. I'm not just saying they were perfectly ripe and at their peak of sweetness, I'm saying that I was looking for the hole in the strawberry where the I.V. of sugar water was inserted!!! We sampled everyone's strawberries, and they all tasted amazing, but then a semi-shady guy approached us and said, "taste my strawberries", so we did, of course! I want to figure out a way to find that weird guy to see if he can ship some to me because every other strawberry I eat now just doesn't do it for me.
This is my "Where's Waldo?" picture of our day at Huntington.
I am really hoping Rusty doesn't get mad at me for sharing this story, and I have some REALLY funny pictures from the whole thing, but I chose a more low-key picture to tell the story. It goes like this: Rusty and Joe were so excited to jump into the ocean. Kim and I were freezing (which is saying a lot since our winters last 6 months and get below 0 where we live!), so we decided to just watch the boys act like 10-year olds while we waited for the water to rise 30 degrees or so. So, we fell asleep on the beach, and the boys were having a fabulous time trying desperately to ride the waves in without any boards. After an hour or two, the guys found themselves kind of itchy from their swim trunks. Joe (always ready with a brilliant idea) suggested that they swim out a bit and just take off the trunks to "rinse" them. This is after we saw lifeguards rushing out to save people like 5 times that day since the riptide was so bad. So, the guys took off their trunks and felt a lot better, but then they noticed that the beach was getting further away. Some surfers called over to them and told them to swim out of the current parallel to the beach. So, Joe struggled and struggled and got free and to a safe spot, but Rusty struggled and struggled and just couldn't get out of it. He started to see his life flash before his eyes, so he tosses the swim trunks to paddle for his life. When he finally got out of it, he was naked . . . . in the freezing ocean . . . . . in front of an over-crowded/highly lifeguarded beach. I wish I could say that he swallowed hi pride and just got out to run naked to his towel, but he had sense enough to know that the police would probably frown on that. So, Joe put on his trunks (not realizing they were on backwards with the strings hanging out the back), and ran to find us. We were still asleep and the umbrellas that was near us earlier was gone, so he couldn't find us. He ran up and down the beach, but couldn't find us - all the while Rusty was treading water. He said a couple of girls were in the water near him and after a wave hit and the water was receding he didn't know the water would go so low, but the girls saw he was without swim apparel and said, "Eww! You don't have a swimsuit on!!" and then ran out screaming. I woke up and Joe finally found us. In a panic, he said, "Girls! We have a big problem!!" Kim grabbed a towel for her darling, and I grabbed my camera, giggling, and we ran to save him. The picture up above is of Joe tossing the towel out to Rusty. We all had a good laugh over that.
Joe attempted surfing! Can you see the lovely red sunburned area from the day before when my continuous spray sunblock apparently wasn't so continuous? It's just lovely!
My favorite thing about California beaches is the piers.