Family stuff to do in L.A. -- bike ride on the strand

Where the heck have you been, Ang!?  I know that's what you're saying.  Well, I'll tell you: watching Survivor, that's where.  A few seasons were added to Hulu plus recently, and Ben and I have been spending every evening watching (season 21 I think) during what would normally be my bloggy blog time after the pups are in bed.  That show's addicting, I tell ya, and very interesting if you ask me.  Someday -- once my babies are grown -- I'm gonna go win myself a million bucks.  Anyway...

Ok, California feels like a LONG time ago now, and lots has happened since, but it's been lots of regular boring stuff and I haven't even plugged in my camera to upload photos in weeks, so here you have it: a bike ride on the beach, our favorite.  We've done it every time we've been to CA together.  {last time}

 we stopped to swing and play in the sand; we walked down the pier to check out the tiny aquarium (which was closed, but no matter: the shark was outside anyway); poor Owen fall asleep face down in the bike seat; Ben swam and I wasn't cool or crazy enough to do it, didn't even consider it for a second in fact.  But, the upside to chilly temps: no crowds.  Then again, crowds can be fun too.

Stuff to do with kids in L.A. -- Griffith Park

Giffith Park is an awesome place for littles -- especially boys.  Three mini train rides, real full size trains to climb in, and Batman's hideout.

Here's the observatory, which we didn't go to (we had other objectives)...

The mini train ride...

The Los Angeles Live Steamers Railroad Museum was another little train ride, even smaller I think -- you had to sort-of straddle the train cars.  There was a long line and Bob was about a half inch too short; we waited for a few minutes but then decided to move on because what he really wanted was to drive the trains anyway.  So I asked for my donation back and we went along to Travel Town.

Checking out the big trains and pretending to "steer" was very exciting.

We rushed out of there and set off searching for Bronson Canyon -- the Bat Cave (used to film some scenes from the '60s Batman series).  We followed directions from Wikipedia and found the spot just in time before the sun set.

Ben climbed up onto a cliff and took this panorama.  See those specks in the center?  That's my cousin Erica standing, and me crouched with Owie in the Ergo trying to comfort Bob, who was carrying a boulder against my advisement and fell and "bwote his hand!"  A near disaster, but after a few minutes of double baby holding, we recovered.

Mini train ride: $2.50 x 3 = $7.50
Live Steamers donation: $6
We ain't waitin, gimme that back: -$6
Total spent: a whopping $7.50
awesome.

Fun adventure.  And fun to see you, Erica!  We miss you!

Cheap stuff to do in L.A. -- The Pier at Redondo Beach

Planning a vacation itinerary when you're traveling with babies is a little bit tricky.  For the first few days adjusting to the time change Bobby took a nap that lasted pretty much the entire day, like, 10am-2pm.  We had some super fun times and intense playing card battles during naps, but by day four Ben and I said, Forget this.  They're napping in the car.  Last time we were in California we took Bob (at almost two) to the San Diego Zoo but it was a good thing we stayed in San Diego the night before and got there early because Bob was passed out by noon and it was already wicked hot by that hour.  {Maybe the heat's the same at every hour; don't know.}  Point is: we knew that wherever we went, we wouldn't last all that long.  And besides, we were on a limited travel budget.  So we were looking for excursions that were free, or close to it.  Here's what we did.  Part one.

Redondo Pier

Ben's Gram lives in Redondo Beach so this was an easy one for us.  The highlights: walking around the pier over the ocean and chasing seagulls (of course!); playing in the arcade (by far bob's favorite part -- and we don't even put money in the machines for him! aren't we mean?); lots of cool mosaics and murals (which = great photo ops, but I wasn't trying to force anything, and the pups weren't exactly running over saying mom, please take my picture here); exploring the beach and getting all soaked (good thing we saved this for last!); checking out the shops (although we were in the market for just one thing: sunglasses for bob because I forgot to pack his.  we found a yellow pair he loved for $5).  oh, and climbing on everything.  you'll notice that's a theme with bob.  and owie's catching on quickly.

We paid $6 to park for 3 hours.  We spent $5 on sunglasses which, yes!, made it home with us.  And that's it.  And it was awesome.