tide-ying up

the bean's very last field trip as a kindergartener took the class pretty far - all the way down to san pedro for a day at the tide pools and aquarium.

because we wanted to be sure that we'd back home for her to get to art class on time, the teen and i decided to drive our own car down while she enjoyed the ride with her friends on the bus.  not to mention, twenty screaming 6-year-olds on a bus for an hour...hard pass.

on the way there, we found ourselves on a familiar-looking bridge.  this is where i ran my very first race way back when.  ah, memories.

a few minutes later, we pulled in here:

and realized that we'd made really good time and had arrived way early.  a quick glance at my phone told us that there wasn't much around in the area to kill time, so like dorks we sat in the car, listened to the radio, and played on our phones.  finally, we caught sight of the bus and we swung a u-turn to follow them, where they joined the hordes of other school buses in the parking lot.

it was a really pretty day.

the teen loves children.

probably the longest part of the trip was waiting for the kids to take a potty break and have a small snack.  while they futzed around getting that accomplished, the bean's teacher headed over to take a peek and see if the tide pools were accessible to us.  unfortunately, the timing was off and the water was up too high for the kids to be able to poke around and check out some sea life.  but just for shits and giggles, we all trekked over there anyway.

at least we still managed to get some fun group shots.

there was a playground on the beach where the kids got to run around and burn off some excess energy.

after eating lunch, it was time to go into the aquarium and see what there was to see.

it was fun watching the teen get as excited as the kids as she walked around the exhibits wearing the emergency backpack.

tell me, is one ever too old to snicker at stuff like this?  apparently not.

my kid, always camera-ready.

fun at the touch tank!

the last stop was another time suck.

there was a good bit of traffic on the road as we made our way back, but the teen managed to survive it with the help of the bean's latest acquisition - a "despicable me" fart gun.

it made for a pretty funny ride home, let me tell you.