lets go surfin' now...

Friday morning we all got up early to go surfing! Betsy and I had done it before, but that didn't stop Gary and Justin from making comments about how bad we were going to be and how they were going to have to help us. Once we got out on the water, we showed them. Gary had the most trouble with it and barely even got up twice, while Betsy and I got up every time, which was a lot. Justin was somewhere in between; he held his own, but not quite up to par :)

Kate played on the beach with my mom, who watched and took pictures.

There goes Justy.

And we actually managed to get one picture of Gary; it was a miracle

This is me

And Betsy

Lunch right on the ocean...how can you beat that?

The beautiful view from our balcony. The landscape out there is also where we decided to have a little adventure. Justin and I heard that there were some trails down there, so we wanted to go exploring. We talked Betsy into going, saying that we would play frisbee for a bit, but it became way to windy. So, then we just started walking around and came to a fence. We thought that we had somehow wandered off the hotel's property and so we climbed the fence, hoping to find some beach access. We wandered down to the edge of the cliffs, hoping to find a trail and instead ended up wandering right into someones backyard, where a bunch of people were having a bbq. Awkward! The guy was really nice though and goes "Oh, you can't get to the beach from here if that is what you are trying to do." After explaining to us that we were on private property, he said he had no idea how we got in here and then offered to walk us to the gate so that we wouldn't "have to jump the fence". We three exchanged looks and tried to stifle our laughter. Once we got off of the gated community's property, I wandered off towards where it looked like the cliffs offered a trail down to the rocks and tide pools below. Justin and Betsy followed me through the bushes, with Betsy complaining all the way. I found a place where it wasn't too steep and began the climb down. Justin then suggests we walk out to the end of the rocks and then swim over to the beach. I was ready, but Betsy had, had it and so Justin and I left her with all our stuff and said we would meet her at the pool. We wandered down through the tide pools and finally came to the end of the rocks, where there was a bay with no beach. We decided to swim across rather than walk along it and jumped off into the water. The swim was a lot farther than it looked and after getting about half way we decided that we would have to get back on the rocks at the other end rather than swim out around the peninsula to avoid from being swept into them by the tide. Easier said than done. We only had flip flops, which obviously are not great water shoes and when the waves are coming in, it is really hard to get your footing on slippery rocks without stepping on any sea creatures. We both did a lot of falling and a lot of catching of one another, but we finally made it to the other side and then jumped back in the water and swam to shore. What an experience!

When we arrived back at the pool, we told Betsy she would have hated it (which was true) and when she asked why, I go "oh, because we saw a shark."

"Oh my gosh! Really?"

Justin: "Oh, yeah it was just swimin' out there in the bay"

Betsy: "I would have just stopped swimming, screamed and died. What did you guys do?"

Me: "Well, what could we do except swim faster? We were in the middle."

Oh, she is so gullible sometimes :)