This year spring break was March 21-25 for both Tracy and James. Tracy used that time off to do a museum visit, so not really time off since he worked. However we decided all of us would go with him which made it possible for us all have some fun.
About two weeks prior to spring break the flu bug hit our house. First Tracy got sick, then James, then Charles and last me. It was the flu that lasts for 5 days. Yuck. Luckily we all were well by the day we left on the Monday, the 21st.
Early Monday morning we piled into the car and headed south to Claramont, CA. It wasn't too bad of a drive just took all day. We arrived at our destination around dinner time and enjoyed a nice meal at Olive Garden.
Tuesday Tracy went off to do his work at the Alf Museum. James, Charles and I enjoyed ourselves that morning exploring the museum.
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| James loved putting together this Allosaurus and taking it apart. |
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| He also loved the dig site. |
The Alf museum is on a boarding school campus, Webb Schools. We were able to join Tracy and some of the museum's staff for lunch on the campus. The cafeteria looks a bit like Hogwarts only with smaller tables instead of house/head tables. After lunch Tracy went back to work and the rest of us went to the hotel for Charles' nap. When Charles woke up I treated to boys to ice cream and then went to a park till it was time to pick up Tracy.
We wanted to go to the Griffith observatory that night, but once arriving we saw how busy it was and decided to come back another day so we went and had dinner at Outback Steakhouse.
Wednesday, after dropping Tracy off at the museum I took the boys to the mall. We walked around the mall for a bit and explored some of the stores. James really loved the Disney Store. I was feeling generous and bought the boys a toy. We went back to the hotel to play with their new toys, eat lunch and Charles to take a nap. Then we spent the rest of the afternoon at a park.
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| Taking a break from paying for snacks. |
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He really wanted to eat the sand
so I made him sit in the stroller and eat his snacks. |
Before picking up Tracy, I treated them to ice cream once again. :) The rest of the evening we hung out at the hotel.
Thursday our last full day in Claramont. We decided to try going to the Griffith observatory again. We had an early lunch at The Old Speghetti Factory on the way. Arriving at the observatory in the early afternoon wasn't too bad. It is almost always busy but evenings it gets insane because everyone wants to watch the sunset.
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| James loved seeing how much he weighs on each planet. |
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| And learning more about each one. |
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| Spinning the gasses in this hands on exhibit was a ton of fun. |
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| Learning about Titan, One of Saturn's moons. |
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| Here we were learning about how the tilt of Uranus affects its days and seasons. |
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| James and a moon rock. |
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| He was in planet heaven. Enjoyed every minute and everything. |
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| Us and the Hollywood sign |
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| Us and the observatory. |
After the observatory we made our way down to Newport Beach for beach fun, dinner and to watch the sunset.
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| Charles was captivated by the seagulls. |
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| He also loved watching the waves. |
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| Love the beach sunsets. |
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For the geologist Tracy took a picture of Charles' crawling trace.
Wonder what kind of confusion and discovering it will cause in a million years. ;) |
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| Love and miss this place. Such a great beach. |
Like all trips the end arrives and we made our way back home.
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| James with his souvenir from the observatory. |
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| Charles as crazy as can be. |
