And now for what you really wanted to see...

The pictures from the weekend!

Akasha on the way there, thankfully asleep!
Our first stop - the shipwreck beach at Fort Stevens.
This guy was all hardcore with his tripod in the sand.
Silly boy finding out how uncomfortable wet jeans are.
Orion doing his thang in the ocean:



The other half of the kids checking out the beach.
And Akasha doing her thang in the sand.



Next day in Long Beach, I spotted these two great posters at the local midwife's office. It was hard to get a picture because of the reflection, but the first one says,
Breastfeeding in public is not a crime.
And the second one say, Don't think of it as a woman's right to breastfeed. Think of it as a baby's right to eat.
The biggest little dog in Long Beach.
Spotted at the pony place. I am pretty good with dog breeds, but wasn't sure on this one. I have just never seen a small dog look so much like it should be a big dog!

Then it was off to Marsh's "Museum". I didn't end up getting a picture of Jake the Alligator Man, so I stole this one from the Roadside America site.
He was surrounded by all the articles in the Globe and such that made him famous.

The locals clearly love their Jake. Apparently there is even a big birthday party for him every year.
Ron's idea of heaven.
Snippet of Akasha walking:



She was walking so much on this trip, but for some reason, neither of us could ever capture it on the camera. It became a joke by the end of the trip. She was taking long walks everywhere we went, but the minute we turned the camera on, it was back to falling and crawling.

On the path out to the beach from our hotel.
Ron is even babywearing! Between the two of us being hurt, we managed to get through the weekend trading off.

The view back toward the hotel. They had really nice grounds in the back, with picnic tables, BBQs, a playground, tennis court, sand volleyball and a building with two hottubs.
Apparently the ocean is not very swimmer friendly around here.
I think I see some water!
I do, I do!
First view of the beach, and Orion takes off running to scatter the seagulls.
There they go!
I just love this beach because it is so laid back and anything goes. You can drive on it, you can bring your dog, you can ride horses on it...
and you can build fires!
There are remains like this all over the beach.

Akasha practicing her standing.
Just two boys and the sea.
Busy kids. There is something kindof disturbing about this picture as they are playing in the car tracks!
We thought it was necessary to get a picture of all of us in front of the frying pan, so we stopped on our way out the next day.

The pan is in a little park area right next to this place:
We thought the name was hilarious, and pretty funny you can get a tan there too!

Me trying to be artsy.
The infamous giant squirting clam.
Orion insisted I take their picture in front of everything.
Baby orca gets a hug. :)
Then Orion took more pictures while I was in buying a latte.

So yeah, we ended up with about 30 pictures all told of the three things here LOL.

Love this one!
Then it was on to Seaside Aquarium. SO glad we stopped here. Orion had a blast feeding the seals.



Then I couldn't believe how enthusiastic he was about the rest of the aquarium! He literally ran from tank to tank asking about all the creatures and asked the staff questions as well.

This handsome fellow was waiting to greet us in the first tank.
I love this picture. The stars seem to be holding the rock up, and the crab looks very "king of the mountain"!
Orion comes face to face with his favorite swear word...
Barnacles!!!!!

Purdy urchins.
Mama holding a crab for everybody to check out.

We like touch tanks!

And the beach there was awesome! The weather was nice, so we stayed awhile. Orion all buried, and...
... jumping out of the sand!
Seaside was just a little more populated than Ocean Park.

Every picture we have of Akasha on the beach is all squinty. Didn't seem that bright to me, but I guess it was for her.
More sand loving.
She figured out all on her own about brushing her hands! She sure seems to "know" how to do alot more things than Orion did at this age. I wonder if it is just her or if it has something to do with having an older sibling.
Not sure what was going on here.
A
Akasha and Daddy burying their feet.

And a little more sandy Youtube