Boardwalk

Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk!
We got an early start and drove to Santa Cruz for a day of fun at the Beach Boardwalk. We had anticipated it would take longer to drive to Santa Cruz than it did.  On the plus side, it wasn't crowded when we arrived, but it also wasn't open.  To pass the time, we walked around and planned which rides to try out.

As an added bonus, there was a special on ride tickets, and the boys each got a bracelet for unlimited rides for the day.  It took less than an hour for them to make up the cost!  For most of the morning, there were no lines for any of the rides.  The boys would ride, exit the corral and jump back on!

We tried our hand at some of the carny games.  The boys won a handful of tickets and turned them in for some trinkets.  

Of course, there is a beautiful beach!  There was a chilly breeze, but we rolled up our pants and played in the sand.

And then waded out into the ocean.  This was Alex and Zachary's first trip to the Pacific Ocean. (Zachary's first ocean, Alex had been to the Atlantic Ocean.)

Just as they started wading in, that little wave coming in suddenly seemed a lot bigger.

Here's what I think happened:  As the wave started to come in, Alex freaked out and turned to run back to the beach.  Since he was holding Zachary's hand, he pulled Zachary with him.  Zachary fell backward into the water.  Zachary did a fabulous job of keeping his head up, as you can see.  Alex was very upset, and was pulling on Zachary's hood and yelling "he's going to wash out to sea!" Once Phil and I stopped laughing we rescued and calmed everyone down.  Zachary was not amused.

Luckily, we had extra clothes in the car so Zachary was soon back and dry.  The lines for rides were longer, but the boys went back to a few favorites before we had to head home