Huntington Beach

We woke up in the middle of the night last night to find that our hotel had lost power. Not wanting to disturb Nora or our night of sleep to figure things out, we just rolled over and went back to sleep. We heard it cut back on a few hours later, and when we got up in the morning, all seemed to be normal.

Except one of the elevators wasn’t working. Which made getting our stuff downstairs and checking out very, very slow since every elevator that came our way was already chock full of people.

We finally checked out, with no explanation whatsoever of the power failure. And then we were on our way.

On our way out of town, we stopped at Randy’s Donuts, because well, it kind of felt like we had to. And who doesn’t like a donut?

My donut was pretty good, though it reminded me of a Krispy Kreme, which aren’t my favorite. BETTER than a Krispy Kreme, but it had that “melt in your mouth” quality to it, I guess.

We had never just straight-up given Nora a donut before, so probably needless to say, she was a huge, HUGE fan.

We took the 5 to Long Beach, at which point we got off to cut over to the Pacific Coast Highway. We wanted to take our time making our way back south, and see some of the scenery that PCH has to offer.

By the time we got to Huntington Beach, Nora was already fed up with being strapped into her car seat and it was clear that we needed to give her some fun. We parked and then basically let her run wild.

We weren’t 100% certain how she was going to respond to the sand and/or the ocean, but we need not have worried. She took to it like a complete natural.

The water was really cold, but Nora did not care one bit. It was so fun to see such joy on her face and hear it in her voice. She couldn’t get enough of it.

This is Nora telling me that it’s too “bwy” (bright) to look up and smile at the camera.

After we had frolicked for a good hour or so, we went back to the car to get Nora and Michael into some dry clothes and get back on the road. By this time, Nora was much more willing to sit in the car seat and chill for a while, now that her “play” needs had been fulfilled. :)

We made a quick pit stop for a bathroom and a big ol’ drink and then we continued down the PCH. Nora eventually fell asleep, so it was really peaceful.

We stayed on the PCH until San Clemente, then hopped back on the 5 for the remainder of the drive. We made it back to San Diego by mid-afternoon, at which point we drove around for a while longer to allow Nora to nap a little longer. She apparently really needed it!

Once she was up we went back to Jay’s place and waited for him to get off of work. Another one of Michael and Jay’s friends, Alan, came by to visit, and we all went and picked up some takeout for dinner and just relaxed.

Tomorrow is our last day in California and we’re planning another low key day to finish the trip.