Mother's Day in Santa Monica

To celebrate Mother's Day, last Saturday we went to Santa Monica to spend the day together.  I have always said I do not like Los Angeles.  Our friend BD asked me if I had ever been to several of the tourist locations, to which my answer was no.  He said I can't really say I don't like LA if I haven't really been to the good spots.  So, we decided to try one of these spots.  

I must say I really enjoyed Santa Monica and it made me begin to see there may be a few diamonds in the rough.

We started with a picnic on the beach.  Hudson is really into holding and chewing on a whole apple.

So, my sister's and have been known for "the watkins girl's stare".  We learned it from our mom... haha... You see we all have big eyes and when we people watch, well it isn't very subtle.  We think we are starring subtly, but really it is quite obvious.  And Hud seems to have inherited this trait...

We walked along the pier.  Which by the way, the little tents to the right of this picture are spaces you can rent for birthday parties.  What a fun location for a party!

Haha... they have the same hair in this picture

He was totally focused on all the new sights and sounds around us.

Ok, so this picture makes me laugh.  We had a stranger take a picture with our professional camera which shoots 8 frames per second.  In order to get it to focus, you only slightly push it down then push it all the way.  The first stranger took a couple dozen pictures and not one of them was in focus.  So, we waited around until we saw someone with at least a SLR camera.  I figured they would at least have some idea of how to use our camera... but again... failed.  So, this is the best of the pictures.  I should have just pulled out our handy snap and shoot camera.

It was so much fun just walking around and see all the fun things taking place on the pier.

This guy was pretty good...

A few guys were break dancing on the pier... it was quite entertaining.

Lesson learned... pulled out the snap and shoot.   After walking around the pier and downtown, we headed to Bubba Gump Shrimp for a few appetizers before we headed home.

When we got home we quickly changed into our swimsuits and headed to the pool for a swim at dusk.  The water felt amazing and it was so relaxing.

Warming up in the spa...

Then home for a delicious barbeque.