You’d think the kids would sleep really well after such an exciting day yesterday.. But, as luck would have it, they were both up and wide awake at 6am–ouch! Brandon and I were zombies as the kids played as the sun came up, but lots of coffee and breakfast helped. 🙂 After breakfast, we saw that the tide had gone out, and Brian went on an impromptu nature walk with Grandma Sue. He carried his new net and explored the tidepools still in his pajamas, while Grandma taught him about the plants and animals he was seeing. He collected some shells and we brought them back to the house to wash them up a bit. We discovered that three of the shells had a creature living inside (probably hermit crabs!) This was both fascinating and a little off-putting to Brian..! So, back into the water they went. 🙂
Once Brandon and I were ready to face the day, it appeared that Brian was becoming less so. I guess the lack of sleep was catching up with him! Brian decided he was not up for visiting the aquarium, so he stayed at the house with Grandpa and Grandma while we took Kendall to the aquarium. The lack of sleep started catching up with her, too, and she reacted in typical Kendall fashion, by running frantically from thing to thing, Casa Bonita-style. It was Shark Week, and we caught only few words here and there from the presenters, but Kendall did get to see the sharks swimming by in the big tank. When she seemed to be running out of steam, we decided to take a treat break and visited the aquarium’s Dairy Queen for a chocolate-strawberry-waffle sundae bowl. 😀 That gave us enough energy to make it a little longer, visiting the outside areas and finishing up with a visit to the gift shop. Kendall got a pink mermaid doll, and we picked up the book “A House for Hermit Crab” by Eric Carle for Brian! This was a pretty cool find, since we’d just read it at his last reading class on Saturday, and he’d enjoyed it so much. We made it to the van just in time to miss getting soaked by a pop-up thunderstorm. We stopped into a surf shop to avoid the worst of the torrent, and picked up a Hello Kitty beach towel for Kendall that we’d had our eye on.
Soon, the storm passed and we headed back to the house. We found Brian working on his Star Wars puzzle with Grandma Sue. We worked on it for awhile (surprisingly difficult, due to the reflective foil!) The kids played with Legos and we admired Brian’s art. For dinner, we decided to go out, and since it’s such a landmark, we went to Sanitary. We had a good meal (Brian opted for the seafood quesadilla!) and then walked along the waterfront for a bit. Brian liked seeing the boats–maybe we can take a tour on the Beagle one day! The evening sunlight gave everything a rosy glow, and it was just lovely. On the drive back to the house, the kids saw a giant inflatable blue crab, and Brian begged for us to stop and go look at it. It was at the visitor center, which was closed for the day, but we did walk up to see the giant crab, and then walked around the visitor center’s grounds for a bit as the sun set. Then, everyone was well and truly done for the day, so it was back to the house for bath and bedtime. Whew! Another fun-filled day. 🙂
