Rest day in Pismo Beach, CA

We had a very restful day, with beach playtime, pool, and bowling.

After a disappointing breakfast at the motel, I took Anne (and kids) to the Orange Cat coffee shop, which I saw last night when walking with Max, for second breakfast.

We then headed to the beach for some sandy playtime. Anne had considered buying sand toys and leaving them, but decided to adapt instead. By cutting off the top third of yesterday’s Gatorade bottles, we had buckets (the bottom) and shovels (the tops). Anne and Ruth made sand castles, I made sand highway mountain roads, and Max was Sand Godzilla. I took the kids to get our feet wet.

This area of Pismo Beach, really just a few blocks south of where we were yesterday, was more to Anne’s liking. Still no crosswalks, but fewer people and traffic.

We headed back near the pier for lunch; ribs at Mo’s. Then back to the room for swimming at the pool. Max keeps getting more comfortable in the water. Now he’ll climb in by himself, and can move along the edges. This one’s shallow end was just an inch or so too deep for Ruth to walk around in, but she worked on her backfloat, and some kicking and such.

We lounged in the room, and I napped a bit. We mustered the strength to head back out to the bowling alley. Even though it was cooler today, I liked the idea of an indoor activity. When we poked our heads in earlier, it was packed, so as a backup we would just do a few arcade games. By the time we returned, several lanes were available.

Ruth totally got into it, clapping for everybody, and encouraging us to get those last few pins down. When it was her turn, she’d carry the ball up, place it on the ground and give it a good shove. It didn’t always go fast, but it always made it down. Max didn’t like waiting for his turn. When it was his, Anne placed the ball near the ball return so he could roll it to the lane. Anne was there to give the ball an extra shove down the way, and it bounced off the bumpers to get a shocking number of pins down.

Anne won with 102, using four spares to make up for an early deficit. Max came in second with 94, picking up a spare in the last frame. I got 84, and Ruth followed close with 81.

Anne and I are hardly serious bowlers, but we both played the best games we could. Apparently high school gym taught us the wrong techniques, since the kids’ pushing approach did just as well.

It was good times, although the kids were both ready to be done around the seventh frame. Ruth did find energy for a round of Whack-a-Rat, but sadly her three tickets weren’t enough for any prizes.

We got dinner, did a bit of shopping (Anne helped Ruth pick out a necklace), and got the kids in for an early bedtime, by touring standards at least.

Tomorrow I think we’ll skip the motel breakfast and head straight to get coffee shop. Then, off to Lompoc.