On Saturday morning, we packed up from Oceanside and drove to Santa Barbara. Here are some videos of how Ammon and Clarissa passed the time in the backseat while the rest of us were listening to the audiobook The Lemon Tree which is about the conflict between Israel and Palenstine. I’m glad Ammon took these videos, because I am curious about what they do to pass the time in the back seat.
Lily has been wanting to go to Santa Barbara for a long time, and it definitely lived up to her hopes. We had brunch at the public food hall and Ammon played on a public piano on the streetside when we were done. Mary also took a turn and played her song, “the top.”
Then we walked around the city. Lydia has told us one of her favorite things to do is to walk around cities with her family and I’m so glad we could do that with her. I think everyone had an amazing time. I certainly did. It was so fun to see the different interesting shops, like this cat cafe. They were too full for us to go in, but we looked through the window.
Then we went to this Turkish delight shop, which was a highlight for everyone, especially for Lily, who later said this Turkish delight shop was a highlight for the whole trip for her. She loved the beautiful colors, flavors and culture expressed in that shop.
Then we stumbled into an archives museum which had some really cool things!
Then we arrived at our Zachari Dunes at Mandalay Beach Hilton resort. We loved it so much there and we are hopeful to go back someday. Everyrthing was great, the room, the resort, the beach (the resort is right on the beach), the food, EVERYTHING! After we dropped our things, we went to the beach, and had so much fun. It was one of my favorite beach memories. Lily and I (but especially Lily) held hands with Lydia, Mary and Ammon, and walked into the waves and ran back too shore when ever a big one came, over and over again. Clarissa was busy building things in the sand. I helped Ammon and Clarissa build a huge walled castle we were trying to protect from the rising tide by fortifying the walls (a favorite game of mine I used to play as a child with my friend Anthony in his sandbox). I also played cornhole with Lydia and Mary. I played left-handed and we had funny rules like they would get three points for hitting me (I couldn’t move), and also, if they won a game, they could throw all there bean bags at me as hard as they wanted (which they did with hilarious on-target results). I laughed so hard playing with them. It was such a fun time.
After the beach, we ate at In-N-Out and then got mochi donuts (meaning very soft and chewy) donuts. They were delicious!
