Please excuse my diversion from Personal Finance related stuff today. We’re on vacation, so I’m going to tell you about that instead. I wrote about the first part of our trip here.
Pismo Beach
On Thursday, we arrived in Pismo Beach. Pismo is a quiet beach town (on the week days anyway) that we really enjoy.
On vacation, one of my favorite things to do is explore on foot (the children would strongly disagree). On Friday morning, I threw some clothes on the kids and we started walking. We walked about 3 miles down the beach, stopping to take in various things we saw.
We played on the beach.
Dune Adventures
Some time ago, I was reading about environmentalists in California who were trying to stop construction on a solar plant in the California desert because an endangered animal lived there. Parts of Pismo Beach are the opposite of this because you’re allowed to take your vehicle out on the sand dunes. I was more than surprised that this activity is still permitted. A couple friends and I took full advantage of this loophole when we rented ATVs and tore around like banshees for a couple hours. No animals were injured, although my neck still hurts a bit.
On Saturday evening, we all drank beer while watching the whales (they were everywhere) and the sunset.
Santa Cruz
We spent our last day in Santa Cruz. Santa Cruz has an amusement park at the beach. We decided to check it out last Sunday afternoon. I thought that late on a Sunday, perhaps the place wouldn’t be so busy. WRONG! There were throngs and throngs of people. I do not like crowds and I do not like lines, so this was my least favorite part of the trip.
Slow Travel
Our vacations always end up as sprints where we try to cram as much as we can into a week. I’ve really come to dislike this. I feel like we’ve barely scratched the surface of a place and then it’s time to leave. One of the things I look forward to most once I’m Financially Independent and free of work is slow travel. It would be great to stay in one place for a month and really get immersed. This is exactly what we plan to do in future summers when the children are out of school.
*Actually, the cost of two sand buckets with shovels was $5. But the girls would have happily played on the beach for a solid week with only $5 being spent. Next vacation we will invest in the more expensive, 15-piece $9 sand toy option and really make them happy. They get upset when we have to leave those sand buckets at the beach…
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