road tripping in the usa

  At last -- the final recap of our West Coast Swing!  For our last full day of the road trip, we descended upon Universal Studios Hollywood with gusto.  The day was long, hot, and -- not gonna lie -- kind of draining, but -- at the end of the day -- we left the park with happy campers.  Hot, tired, and hungry campers, but happy nonetheless.  As is the case with all amusement/theme parks, we paid more than the actual worth of the food we consumed and the souvenirs we bought, but it's all about making memories,  right??  Hahaha.  With that being said, here are the memories we'd like to keep from the day... Harry Potter world Our first stop right out of the gate was Hogsmeade.  Hahaha.  Alex became relatively obsessed with all things Harry Potter earlier this year, and visiting the famous wizarding world was one of the biggest draws of the road trip for him.  That being said, ALL of the kids (myself included) were looking forward to e...

  (I feel like this picture should be subtitled: "Where the Wild Things Are."  Hahaha.) With a leisurely itinerary planned for Day 10, we were able to take our time waking up and getting ready that morning before loading the car and getting back on the road.  After approximately 3 hours or so of driving, we made it to the day's destination in Ventura with half the day still to play.  We obviously did the smart thing and got food as soon as we had checked into the hotel, but after that was taken care of, we still had more than enough daylight to frolic on the beach before turning in for the night.  For the second to last day of the road trip, it was the perfect "time out" to chill and relax and recharge our metaphorical batteries before braving the final full day of our West Coast Swing at Universal Studios.  To close out this rather short and altogether uneventful post, I'll leave you with a photo dump of our day at the beach... You would think they'd ha...