The 2 days leading up to the big day had us on edge. You see, we had planned a nice gathering at the beach. Nothing too big or too fancy, but full of fun. 2 days before the big day the news started to tell tales about "bigger than normal" waves at the beaches and closures all around...including our beach. By Friday the closures had been lifted, but we continued to see large crowds gathering at the beaches to catch a glimpse of these "bigger than normal" waves. We worried that the beach would be too crowded and we may not even find a space big enough. Ha. Little did we know.
On Saturday, July 25th, we [us, Robert and Chris] headed out to the beach at 10am thinking this was early enough to get a good spot. We had just been there 2 weeks ago and the crowds hadn't shown up till 2pm. As we cruised down PCH we began to notice that many of the beaches already had many large groups camped out. The worrying commenced.
We parked and noticed many of the lots where either full or half-full. Not good when it was barely going to be 11am, and the evite stated 12pm as the party start time. The beach was loaded with people! The news did not lie, the waves were amazing, but not amazing enough to shut down the beach.
G found us a great spot on the beach. It was large enough for our two pop-up canopies with plenty of sunny space. So far so good. And then noon arrived and we were still the only one's there. I called my mom and they had just left the house. *breath* I was pretty ticked considering I had warned them about the crowds and she was bringing most of the food. We then began to get messages via BBM, text and twitter that people were stuck in major traffic just minutes from the beach. *breath* Did I mention there was a surf competition at the next beach down? *breath*
[Andy had a grand old time during all this. He splashed in the ocean, threw sand up in the air, watched the kites fly, etc.]
At 12:30pm our only guests arrived - G's Dad's family. Our only guests you ask? Yes, our only guests...at the beach party. What happened? Our guest began arriving one after another, after spending 1.5-2hrs in traffic, only too find all the parking lots had closed and there was no street parking for miles. At this point G & I had to make the executive decision to move the party. But to where? Ideas were thrown around....phone calls were made...in short my uncle offered up his home, complete with a pool, since everyone was in their bathing suits anyway.
Most guests followed us on this wacky adventure. Many drove another hour back to my uncle's house where we ended up with a pool party. Some stuck around at the beach and got lucky and found parking. I didn't blame them. I was more thankful they had made the trek out.
So much stress that day, but in the end Andy smashed his cake and had a great day. He could care less where we were. And that is what matters.
A HUGEMONGUSOID thank you to everyone that drove to Bolsa Chica and sat in traffic in an awesome effort to celebrate this day with us. I don't think Andy's 1st birthday will every be forgotten.
Andy definitely enjoyed our 2 hours at the beach.
Smash Cake! I made the 3 layer cake from 4in cake molds. Topper was from Etsy seller OhMyGlueStick. Andy had little interest in eating it but he sure did a great job smashing it!
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