Laguna Beach - Day 4 (Hiking & Sawdust Festival)

The hills above Laguna Beach are pretty well known for hiking and single track mountain biking, so I thought it would be great to take the kids up here while Tara had some time to herself.  I found a place just west of town called Alta Laguna park which was also known as the Top of the World park.  The drive up here (and also the bike ride that I experienced first hand) is quite steep with grades that seemed to approach 15-20% at times. We arrived after a short 10 minute drive and these guys were psyched to get out on the trails.  The different trails seem to go off in all directions and though there weren't really any trees, there were plenty of this desert shrubbery and cactus to be found.  We looked for rattlesnakes which were advertised to be in the area but really only saw some bugs and a few other lizards and other insignificant things.  It did get quite hot and dusty and with some fairly large elevations gains on the trail we had our work cut out for us.

So that hike must've tuckered them out altogether ;) because this is how I found Gavin afterward.  Gavin was just taking a break in his new favorite tire swing, and I caught a good pic of it in the moment.

So when Daddy got out on a bike ride (he rented a road bike in town for 24 hours) I took the boys on a free trolley ride.  We'd been talking about doing it ever since we'd seen them around town, and we agreed it was a must-do.  How cute is this picture of the two of them in the open-air trolley (?!), taking in the sights and sounds of Laguna Beach.  Seeing pictures like these almost makes me forget how much they fought during other moments of the trip. ;)

 Our destination was the Sawdust Festival, an annual arts and crafts event up the canyon from where we were staying and a perfect trolley stop away.  We got to watch a glass-blowing demonstration, see lots of artists and their beautiful wares and even make some art of our own.  The boys made star fish out of multi-colored tissue paper, and they hang at home now as a great reminder of our trip to California.

When I wasn't terrified that Gavin and Gage might break something fragile and expensive at the Sawdust Festival, we were having fun exploring everything there and taking pictures in front of beautiful landscapes like this one.  I have good memories from that afternoon with the boys.