Poor Malibu!

On Saturday we went back out to the coast to enjoy the CA beaches one more time. We went to Malibu because it is beautiful and the water and sand are a bit cleaner than the southern beaches.

Poor Malibu, now it is up in flames.

Saturday night the Santa Ana winds kicked up, with the 90 degree heat and dry conditions things were perfect for wild fires. Currently there are fires all over So Cal. We appear to be safe, there are fires to the west, east, and south of us but there is a lot of cement between us and the nearest fire.
The current concern for us is the air quality, it is getting brown and dingy from the smoke and dust being blown around. The local news has been warning people with respiratory problem to stay inside, and some schools are not allowing kids to play outdoors for recess. Since Sean falls into the "breathing problem" crowd I am keeping an ear on him.

The winds were very extrem this weekend. On Sunday we headed out to the church we have been attending, it is in the Simi Valley. The winds were so high that trucks were pulled over on the freeway unable to drive. After the church service was over we exited to find that a few trees had fallen on cars in the parking lot. With the winds being as high as they were, Jason had parked clear of all trees, so our car was fine.

Wow, extrem heat, flash floods, and now wild fires, CA is giving us quite the weather related disaster experience.


So here are some pictures from our Saturday at the beach. This is Malibu.


Yes, I know he needs a hair cut. I have tried, he keeps crying and holding his hands on his head when we go to get it done. Little stinker, I don't know where he gets his stubborn strong will from.




We started the day in Malibu were we enjoyed the sun and sand. We then headed south to Santa Monica, during Sean's car nap we drove to Venice beach, Manhattan Beach, Hermosa beach, then onto Redondo beach. After checking them all out we headed back to Venice beach for the rest of the day.

Venice seemed to have the most beautiful waterfront, with a long winding boardwalk, white sand, kids playgrounds, and a permanent street fair along the water. Well, Venice may be an extremly popular and well know beach but wow, it was quite an experience. I have to save the pictures and comments from that for another day, this post would be too long if I added it all right now.


You may remember from my previous post that Jason loves the water and Sean is very happy with the dry land. Well, here he is again trying to talk Sean into going into the water.








And he's off!!


Sorry Jason, maybe Ethan will be the water boy.


For now he is on his own.....


swimming in the Pacific ocean in mid October. Koo koo


We then visited the famous Santa Monica Pier.

The pier is a historical Los Angeles landmark, it is 1080 feet long, built in 1909.




This picture is looking North onto the Santa Monica beach. The beach is usually peppered with people, however we were there early, plus it is October.



The pier has an amusement park, restaurants, and an aquarium. This particular Saturday there was a children's concert going on. This giant octopus was greeting kids as they came into the concert area. At first Sean was excited to see him, then as he got closer and realized the plush sea creature was moving......



he turned and dived into the safety of his stroller.



On our way out of Santa Monica we saw this in our rear view mirror.



I guess it is a super nice Lamborghini. Jason and Sean were excite to see it, I however was a little distracted with the sidewalk we almost drove onto while Jason tried to take pictures of it.


Sarah