Senior Trip Day 5 - The Boardwalk

This was an awesome day. We didn’t have anything planned so to speak. There were some ideas circulating. We knew we needed to take Eve and Izzy to the airport. Both of them had to return just a little early. AJ mentioned wanting to go down to the boardwalk, but we didn’t have anything set in stone. Breakfast was a little late because everyone was slow moving. Actually, some people got up ridiculously early to see the sunrise at the beach. Then those people went back to bed, which I don’t blame them. I was just happy to enjoy their pictures later.

Tyler was now very sick. He hardly slept and was up and down all night. He checked the local pharmacy and they opened at nine, so that was when he planned to go. I went with him. It was nice to walk over to the shops. The weather is always so nice and mild. Just lovely. It would have been a lovely walk with Tyler except that he was miserable. We found the pharmacy easily enough and got what he was looking for. Zyrtec-D which is a little stronger. You have to get it from the pharmacist and luckily, she had one more. Phew. And Tyler said it did help, but he spent most of the day in bed and away from everyone else. :( Later in the morning, the kids talked about walking to the shops. I had already gone, so I wanted to stay and play games. Christina had a hurt ankle, so she wasn’t going to go, so naturally Aaron stayed. :) And so did Izzy because she doesn’t love to walk around. The kids took off and June brought Isaac on the walk. (On the phone of course) I think by now all the guys have figured out that they are a thing. The girls all knew before the trip, but the boys are on board now too.

All the kids came back and something was niggling at my brain. We needed to take both Izzy and Eve to the airport in the afternoon. Joanna said the airport was really close, but I always thought the airport in LA was huge. They told me that the Long Beach airport is tiny and then it clicked in my brain. Eve’s mom probably doesn’t know about the Long Beach airport any more than I do. I texted her and asked and sure enough, Eve was leaving from the LAX airport. We dropped everything and went to the car since the drive there was much longer and now we had to drive BACK to drop Izzy off. The drive was 40 minutes through some crazy traffic and the LAX airport is ginormous. Jetblue was in terminal 5. (Salt Lake only has 2 terminals) I went inside with Eve so she could get a boarding pass. She broke her phone the first day, so she didn’t have anything to help her. I got her checked in and I walked Eve to security and then there was nothing left to do but pray she made it to her destination. I ran back to car and we took off for the other airport. The drive back was an hour because of traffic. We got a little confused and took a minor detour, but we got Izzy there in time. We dropped her at the curb since she was all checked in and the Long Beach airport is so tiny. There are only 11 gates total. Such a difference. All the kids had gone with us. I’m not sure they realized they would be in the car for over two hours, but it was nice that they came to say goodbye. We unloaded and made dinner. We wanted to eat early so we could go and do what we wanted in the evening, which turned out to be the boardwalk after all. Great suggestion, AJ. The girls were doing this strange hairdo where they rolled it up and it was super fluffy. But we struggled to get everyone looking good at the same time.

We decided to drive since it was at least four miles away. Not a great walking distance. Joanna drove us (thank you) and we found parking near the docks. There was a lot of beach to the left, but we headed right. We walked by all the boats docked. It was fun to read all the boat names. We stopped at one point and we saw mini rays in the water and a few fish.

At the end of the docks, we found the boardwalk. The sun was sinking and we walked out on a dock and took a lot of pictures. It was super fun. There was a lighthouse in the background that was really cool.

June leaned over the dock and caught a crab in the seaweed attached to the dock. So brave. Katie was the only one willing to hold it too!

It was honestly so fun to be with these kids. Sure, there aren't a lot of photos of the grown ups, since this was their trip, but we did get a couple mom photos on the dock.

Then we walked around and Hannah found this cute hat shop. We tried on hats for ages. Then we got some free flower crowns and we took even more pictures. It was dark by the time we were done. (Lots of photos were taken on this trip. In the hat shop alone, we took dozens. I finally found them on June's phone (not in shared photos—shame June.)

We saw a lock bridge and then found some cool lamps. Then this guy took us to Lamp heaven. It was a really cool turkish shop. The girls got matching anklets there. Super cute. They were quite the salesmen. They gave the girls free tiny eye charms and turkish delight. Most of them had never tried it.

From there, we walked around the boardwalk. All the lights looked so cool. It was such a lovely evening. I’m really sad that Tyler couldn’t be there.

We saw this guy playing crystal bowls. I missed some of his speech because I went up above to take a picture but I think he was talking about chakras or such. The sounds were really cool and he seemed pretty talented.

We saw a boat with Long Beach Institute on the side, so the kids took pictures there and made a little video plug for institute. Nice.

While there, I thought I heard a pop-it, but Aaron said he didn’t hear it. But when we got back off that dock, I heard it again. It took me a while to find the source, but it was totally Jackson. They bought some while we were getting anklets. Funny boys. They had a good time with those.

By that time, it was getting late and Hannah had some family coming to get her at 10. So we walked back. We had gone pretty far. We took a different way back and made good time. They are a great group to hang out with. The moon came up and it was huge! And orange because of the lights. It looked so cool. Almost a bit fake.

We got home just in time for Hannah. While she was gone, we did Come Follow Me. Seriously, what group of teenagers stops what they are doing for a spiritual moment. I am so inspired by these kids. We played 6Nimmt right before bed. It was crazy with 10 people. We used every card. We only got to play 3 rounds, but that’s all it took for someone to reach 66. I think Katie lost. I came in third right behind Christina and AJ was the big winner. Lucky I’d say. You never knew what you’d get stuck with. Then off to bed. It’s a long drive tomorrow. Tyler was still snoozing. Poor guy. I feel bad that he’s stuck in a car tomorrow.