Day 14: Surf School

This was the day the kids and Matt had been waiting for and most excited about on this whole trip.  To be honest, it was the day I was kind of dreading.  Surf School.  I'm not coordinated or sporty at all.  I'm even less a fan of cold water, and the air temperatures were in the 60s.  We had put our feet in the water the evening before, and it felt icy.  Matt kept saying maybe wet suits would make enough difference that it wouldn't be too bad.

As it turned out, he was right about the wet suits.  We weren't even a little cold getting into the water.  Even more amazingly, I managed to get up on the board and surf!!!  And I had zero expectation that I would manage to surf at all -- take that Law of Attraction! ;) Matt and Maya got up, too.  Seth paddled around and coasted in on some waves on his belly on the board, and Riley just wasn't feeling it at all.  It was way more tiring (and a lot more fun) than I expected -- lots of paddling hard to catch the waves, to get back out after riding one in, and a major saline flush of the sinuses with every wipeout.  After the kids had gotten worn out and settled in at the beach, a pair SEA OTTERS came by and played and swam right next to us for the longest time!

 Surfers still in the water as we left

On our way to Venice Beach, we drove past a lot of orchards and busy farms

 We stopped at Casa de Fruta 

The kids had been wanting these for a while and were excited to find them.

Spin the wheel, take a chance on a decent flavor or disgusting flavor. 

Enjoying the grossness