Hotel Del- Day 2

Saturday morning Eli and I woke up before the rest of the gang so we decided to go and explore the hotel together. 🙂
It sure is pretty!
They have a giant gold bow to commemorate this year being their 125th anniversary! Not many places can say they have been in business that long!
Eli and I walked down to the shops and found these little curio cabinets with snippets of info about the history of the hotel. It was pretty cool. 
I know it’s hard to see but I love to look at old handwriting. It really was an art form. 
I love the way they describe the bridal suite. It’s like poetry. 🙂
A neat little story behind those simple paper dolls. My grandmother was born in 1930. 🙂
 I’m so glad it was saved!!
Gotta love a haunted hotel! 😛
As we walked around some more we stumbled across this neat little room.
I explained to Eli people didn’t always have cell phones. They had rooms exactly like this they had to make calls from. Of course the phones here have been updated and look much different than what would have originally been in here..but it really helps you to get a glimpse of what it would have looked like at the time. 
This hotel was also one of the first hotels to even have electricity. It was a big deal back then to put it into such a large building of this size. 
This chandelier hangs in the main lobby. It is absolutely stunning! I definitely think I was born in the wrong era. I love the old world architecture, style and romance! 😀
A couple of hours later the rest of the family joined us and we headed out to Orange Ave. (the main street up to the hotel) for some good ‘ol fashioned shopping and sightseeing! 🙂
All that walking worked up our appetites so we stopped for some crazy good fish tacos! Mmmmmm!
Chad and Jared waiting so patiently for lunch. 😛
Alayna found a little dog to love on while we waited. She adores animals!
After we fueled up we headed back to the hotel for some more fun in the sun!!
Body boarding is the most awesome thing ever! The kids spent hours and hours out there on those boards. I was so glad Jill had a few and let us use them. 
Walker is such a stud of a big brother. He’s so good to his little sister. 🙂 The beach here is also perfect for playing in. You can go out pretty darn far into the ocean and still stand. The kid’s heads looked like pin dots out there at times. It was great!
We only had one medical emergency. Alayna doesn’t weigh a whole lot and the waves pushed her into an out cropping of boulders. She got her leg beat up pretty bad. Thank goodness for 1st aide!! 
After that she was ready for something a bit calmer…so we headed over to the pool to play!
Ahh…this is the life!! 🙂
Boy…I’m a sucker for a Pina Colada!! YUMMM! 🙂
Jared and the boys joined us after a little while. We swam for a bit and then our nephew Joe and his girlfriend Brooke drove over to meet us. 🙂
This picture pretty much sums up how Alayna feels about Joe. She ADORES him. We didn’t realize Joe lived so close to the hotel and when he found out he said he’d come out to visit us while we were there. I think when we told Alayna she about jumped out of her shorts she was so excited!!! LOL!
It was so great to see Joe and meet his girlfriend. She seems very sweet. We had some tasty Mexican food and had a nice visit. 
We walked down the street a bit after dinner and grabbed some ice cream. Who knew Elvis was in town? 😛
Alayna saw this cow outside and begged for Jared to put her on it and for me to take her picture. LOL!
Doesn’t that look good???? 😀
Eli got a toasted coconut ice cream with some chocolate swirled in it..but it was crunchy not like a syrup. It was amazing and I can’t stop thinking about that ice cream!! 😀
 BFF’s!!
After we rolled ourselves down the street back to the hotel we headed to the beach to play and make sand castles. 
  
It’s all about the stance…Hahaha! She cracks me up!

I think they did a mighty fine job! 🙂 There is a crab in there somewhere. Alayna said it was it’s castle. 😛

We also played a little kickball. 
Jared just enjoying the cool night air. 
 Eli still body boarding even though the sun is going down. 😛
He’s in total BLISS! 🙂
  
Handsome man!
 Alayna wanted to take my picture. 🙂
She collected and brought home about 100 of these abalone shells!
The Del looks so beautiful at night. 
 It was a wonderful day that ended with a picturesque sunset! It was such a blessing to be there with my family! 🙂

2 Comments

Leave a Reply to Jill Ison Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *