My parents went to college together and they had many of the same friends when they were there. They hung out with some friends who they have still stayed in touch with now. So a few days ago we met up with some of their friends at a dinner party. It was a potluck, and mom signed up to bring dessert. I found this really good apple rose pastry that I wanted to make for a bit, and this gave me the opportunity to. Mom helped me make them and everybody at the party really liked them. At the party, we got to know the other kids. We played games and talked and quite a lot of fun until 12 in the morning. The party was on Saturday, and we were going to take the friends who were visiting from Canada exploring on Sunday. The kids included, (counting my brother and me), 2 high schoolers, 3 middle schoolers, and some kids in elementary school. Some of the younger kids went on their own to play but the high schoolers, the middle schoolers, and one of the elementary schoolers were playing card games and board games together. We had lots of fun talking about the differences between America and Canada, and getting to know the group before we went exploring together.
On Sunday, we went exploring! We went on the 17-mile drive near Monterey and then went to Carmel Beach. On the 17-mile drive, there was also a beach which we stopped at. We put our feet in the water and it was really cold. But the sand was super soft. Another place we stopped was an area overlooking the ocean. There were a bunch of rocks that you could climb and look out from. All the families climbed to the top of the biggest rock which was decently far from the ocean. They were a ton of rocks that were closer to the ocean, and the oldest kid started climbing toward the ocean, and he was standing on a rock that was touching the ocean. The next three oldest kids, including me and my brother, also went down there to join him. We had to climb carefully but it was a lot of fun. We kept going from one rock area to another, and since I was the youngest among the kids that were climbing the older kids kept making sure I was okay. After climbing a bunch of different rock structures, everyone had a little bit of food that my mom had packed. We were all really hungry, so even that little bit of food really helped.
Another really important landmark during the 17-mile drive was the “Lone Oak.” The Lone Oak is basically an oak tree that is growing on a rock near the ocean. It doesn’t seem like much, but it must be pretty important because that’s the logo for the 17-mile drive. Then, we finally looked at everything on the drive that the parents wanted to, and we got to go eat lunch… at 5:00. It was super late, we were all really hungry, and we just wanted to eat. So we drove over to Carmel, which was really close from the exit that we took from the drive, and we started looking for restaurants that had good reviews. We ended up going to this place that had Italian, Thai, and Mediterranean food. My brother and I wanted to share a dish, but then we started arguing which dish. I finally gave in and just ordered a Yellow Thai Curry. It was actually super delicious, and not too spicy like other Thai restaurants.
After filling our bellies with yummy food, we went to the Carmel beach. All the families brought something we could use. One brought a half tent for the parent to sit in, one brought chairs, ours brought toys for the kids. Everyone brought something to share. We the kids found a volleyball court and started playing there. We had our own ball, but it was really hard, so we borrowed one from some people who were resting on the side. But when they had to leave, we started playing with our ball, and we just hurt ourselves. So we went back to where the parents were sitting. During all this, my dad was playing with our dog, Sparky, on the beach and in the ocean. Sparky was soaking wet, but he was really happy that he got to come with us on this adventure. After heading back to the parents, we started playing frisbee. We had brought that as well. But we actually played Ultimate Frisbee. We split up into two teams, and then we played, and my team won!
At the end of the day, we had so much fun, we were so tired, it was cold, and we were exhausted. When we got home, we felt too tired to even empty the car. But it was so much fun to get to go to the beach before summer ends, and school starts.
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