Day 23

Monday we woke up to a bathroom at the campground full of backed up water, so we got a refund for our second night and booked a hotel instead. Before we left, the kids had fun jumping on the giant inflatable pillow with some other kids. We drove to Pismo Beach, where grandma did laundry at a laundromat and the rest of us walked to the beach. We had fun playing in the waves and building a sandcastle, while poor grandma washed, dried, and folded our clothes. Then we drove a little farther to our hotel, which was called Pea Soup Andersen’s Inn. It was named after the restaurant next door that was famous for its pea soup. Despite the weird name, it was a charming little motel. The lady at the desk gave us a room with a patio that opened up right by the pool. We jumped in the pool for a nice swim to cool off. We could smell wildfire smoke on the wind from our motel, which meant we were pretty close to the fire but the lady at the desk assured us we weren’t too close.

After our swim, we drove to Ventura to meet our friends Dave and Casie Marriage and their girls. They are friends from Madison who moved out here a few years ago. It was fun to see some familiar faces and to catch up a bit. The kids had a lot of fun playing at a playground on the beach. We ate dinner with them at a local fish place right on the pier and then talked until it got dark. Lexi was sad to leave her new friends, but we drove back to the hotel for the night.

Conquer trying to help with the laundry

Making faces at lunch

Pismo Beach

Working on the sand castle

Our sand castle masterpiece

Playing with friends

Watch out for rattlesnakes, Conquer!

Jumping on the giant pillow