New Year's Day by the Sea.

It was a sort of relaxing New Year's Day. We started out all sitting around watching the rose parade which my kids have never done before. Our TV actually picked up some random channel that carried it. We don't have cable so rarely watch anything. Sophie really enjoyed all the floats. The boys sort of got annoyed by all the commercials. My kids aren't used to ads breaking up their shows. When you watch only DVD's you just don't understand that your show will come back after a few minutes.

After our leisurely morning we decided to head down to Santa Cruz to see the sea. We have done this several times over the years on winter holidays. It is fun to go to the wharf and see the sea lions basking in the sun on the pilings under the pier. There were a bunch that must have missed the tide and were all just grouped together in the water trying to nap.We watched one try and try and try again to jump up onto one of the cross beams between the pier poles. It never did make it but it was interesting to watch. I guess it should have just waited until higher tide.

As we sat on the end of the wharf sampling some of the tasty sea food offerings we noticed something other than the usual pigeons and seagulls. We spotted some pelicans. They were just there wandering among the people.
So of course my kids had to go and see how close they could get to them. Sophie would have gone right up and tried to pet them if I hadn't stopped her. Then she saw these two wild pelicans use those long beaks on each other and understood why I kept telling her to stay back.
They were fascinated by these birds for a long time. This was the first very close up look they have had of these birds and they didn't miss anything. They noticed the webbed feet and the hook on the end of the bill. They loved it when one would pull the bill up and they could see the pouch.
We must have stood here watching them for 20 minutes. That is longer than they have ever stayed in front of any cage at the zoo or tank at the aquarium. I guess seeing it out in nature makes it more personal and interesting.

We took a short drive up the coast to see a light house but it ended up being closed. So we just walked around it and watched some surfers try their luck on a few waves. We were freezing standing there in the wind I can't even imagine how cold those guys were out in the bay. Do wet suits really keep you that warm?

Everyone had a good time but the boys were sad we didn't actually go down to the beach and play. They had to settle for climbing on every one of these binoculars they came across.

I hope you had a lovely relaxing New Year's Day too.