Adventure weekend

We had a packed weekend in Carmel. We drove up Friday night. Saturday morning we headed over to Moss Landing with kayak on the roof and did our first official family kayak in the ocean. It wasn't a typical ocean kayak. In Moss Landing it is more like a river than an ocean but perfect for Gavin. We all got suited up and Gavin was pretty excited. We had Nana and Papa going with us as well. They rented a kayak and gear and we launched.

The kayak was very mellow compared to an ocean kayak in Shell Beach. There was a ton of marine life. That made the kayak interesting. If there was no marine life, I would probably pass on this kayak. We saw huge pods of sea otters, tons of sea lions, bunches of harbor seals and a lot of pelicans and birds.

We made it about halfway through Elkhorn Slough and turned around. Gavin was ready and our backs were hurting by then. Gavin fell asleep on the return paddle. We grubbed at Whole Enchilada. Cool decor but so so food. Gavin's lunch was tortilla chips dipped in ranch. What can ya do.. we tried with refried beans and burritos. We all had a fun time. Came home and crashed

Sunday we woke up early and made our way down to Carmel Beach for the annual sand castle contest. Last year we just watched but this year we decided to enter. Not sure that was the wisest move. We were the first people on the beach but our castle didn't show it. It took 2 hours to build the base of our "dog house" (Theme was dog houses) and another two hours to keep it from collapsing. Our vision and actual didn't look the same. Oh well. It took a lot of work to keep Gavin from jumping on it. Mom and I did bucket runs to the ocean... back and forth with water. Our backs ached. Steve dug the sand and piled it on top. By the end, we had no plaque for show for our efforts. People with crappier castles won so we were bitter. We decided next year to stick with no upright castle walls....too easy to collapse. That is if we decide to enter again. I like the idea of the beach, lame little castles I build with Gavin that he loves, killer picnic and walk around looking at EVERYONE ELSE's castle. That sounds more relaxing.

After all the fun events, we packed up and drove home. Good weekend but a tad tiring.