A Saturday Adventure

On Labor Day weekend we wanted to head to the beach. We checked the weather and the beaches about 1 1/2 hours South of here were supposed to be cold but a few beaches about 2 hours north of here were supposed to be warm. So, we packed up the car and headed out on a day trip. We got all the way to Bodega Bay and it was FREEZING!! Overcast, very windy and like 59 degrees. It is usually not a good sign when you see people basically in parkas standing on the beach. Needless to say we did not get out. We checked the little tourism office for other things to do in the area. We found out there was some horseback riding for the kids and a lighthouse about an hour south heading back towards our house so we set off that direction. We had some lunch at a yummy restaurant that had VERY slow service (not good for kids who have been in the car for basically 3 hours).
After that we took the kids horseback riding. They loved it! They were supposed to ride on ponies but, as you can tell from the picture those were NOT ponies. It was cool because they took them on a little trail ride instead of just around the arena. Paul and I walked alongside to make sure they were safe. After that, we headed to the lighthouse it was about 20 miles of winding back roads to get to it. Unfortunately they close the steps down to the lighthouse at 4:30 and that is exactly when we got there so the kids were a little bummed and keep asking to go back. As you can imagine, it was pretty windy and chilly up there. It had a beautiful view and it was still cool to see the lighthouse even if we couldn't go down to it. After that we headed home and were blessed to make it to a gas station since there were none for like 40 miles! It was a lot of driving but still fun to see a lot of the beautiful country up here and be together as a family.