Weather forecast was 94 degrees in San Jose, and 72 in Monterey. Naturally we decided to bike in Monterey to escape the heat :D
We had a small group biking, just our family and DK and JY. PK and CV were planning to drive down, grab some lunch for us, and meet us at the beach. The morning started out chilly and foggy, but the fog quickly burned off as we biked. Little J biked on his own right from the beginning from the REI parking lot, with Hubby pushing him up the hills when needed.Â
We had just gotten close to the town section of the trail, almost to the wharf, when Hubby was pushing Little J on the flat part of the trail. There were two bumps on the trail, and Hubby warned Little J about the first bump, but a second bump took Hubby by surprise, causing him to lose balance on his bike. I watched in horror as Hubby's bike fell over and knocked over Little J. Little J's bike was on top of Little J, who was crying, and Hubby was trying to extricate himself from his bike. The handlebar on Little J's bike must have rammed into his cheek, as it was swollen and bruising. Little J complained his leg was hurting also. Hubby's elbow was badly gouged on the pavement and bleeding, a couple bad scrapes were bleeding on his knees and chest, and there were bruises on his butt. Afterwards he realized his right ankle was also swollen. We used up all the bandaids and antibiotic ointment in my first aid kit, and had to use more supplies from DK's first aid kit. Little J had a small bruise on his leg, and the nasty bruise on his cheek, but other than that no major injuries. He said he wasn't hurting anymore, but appeared to be in shock, as he was whimpering and clinging on to us. After patching Hubby up and checking the bikes, Little J refused to bike anymore. So, we continued with Hubby towing Little J's bike and me hauling Little J in the baby seat.
PK texted us that he and CV were stuck in really bad traffic, and wouldn't get to Monterey until 1:30pm. The boys were too hungry to wait that long for lunch, so we decided to park our bikes on the pier next to Palucca Trattoria, and ate at Palucca Trattoria. By the time Little J was done eating, he had recovered and was happily running around the pier looking for seals and watching people rowing their boats in the water. After we had the boys change into beachwear and slathered more sunscreen on them, we were ready to bike out to the beach. Surprisingly, Little J wanted to bike too! Â
So we all biked over to the beach, and met up with PK and CV there. They brought a cooler full of sushi, sandwiches, and ice cream which was melting at a very fast rate. We each scarfed down two ice cream sandwiches and/or ice cream cones, haha. So much for exercise! The weather was sunny and gorgeous. The kids had a blast playing in the sand and jumping in the waves. Actually, I had fun splashing around in the waves too, while Hubby enjoyed a nice snooze under the tent. The J's broke the last of their cheapie plastic sand shovels on the last beach trip. I had just purchased 3 brand new shovels from REI, which were actually strong sturdy cat hole shovels for camping, which we're doubling as sand toys :P Oldest J kept sticking his shovel in the sand watching the waves wash over it, declaring that there's no way that the shovel is gonna move. I warned him several times to stop doing that, because it could float out to the ocean. He didn't listen. Shortly after, the shovel was missing and nowhere to be found. We looked out in the ocean and saw a whitish object bobbing up and down in the waves. Hah, we thought, that's probably the shovel. It was too far out for Oldest J to swim, and none of the adults had a change of clothes to swim. A while later, I spotted a man and woman preparing to surf. I told Oldest J to approach them and ask very nicely whether it'd be possible for them to help retrieve what we thought was our missing shovel. We watched as they surfed out, grabbed the white thing, swung it around and threw it back in the water. Unfortunately, that wasn't our shovel, and we never did find it. SIGH. I told Oldest J he doesn't get to use any shovel, and I'm not buying any more.
Around 4:30pm, we ate some fruit and snacks, changed all the sopping wet boys back to their cycling clothes, then started packing up. Little J was too tired to bike, so into the baby seat he went. He was sleeping in no time. There was a strong headwind biking back, but we still made pretty good time. By the time we got back to the REI parking lot, it was quite cold. After we finished loading up our gear and bikes, it was close to 6:30pm. So, we headed across the street to Smash Burger for a divine dose of Truffle Mushroom Swiss Burger and Haystack Onions.. yum :P There was no traffic going home.
The next day, Hubby asked Little J if he had fun in Monterey, and Little J solemnly answered, "Daddy, let me tell you this. The crash was not fun, not fun at all, buuuut.... it's fun."