No Naps and Newport

Some days, you skip naps and spend the entire day by the sea.

A week after our friends went home after the 4th of July weekend, they came right back for more. While half of their family took off for Alaska, the other half came to SoCal to go to theme parks. Before they hit up Legoland, they spent a few nights with us and Newport Beach was our top priority.

Their visit coincided with the Pokémon GO launching craze and the pier happened to be a PokéStop.

I was so happy that the Pokémon GO phase didn't last and the boys stopped trying to confiscate my phone and drain my battery, but it really was fun to be in on the hype. We had lots of conversations with gamers we ran into all day.

Our first order of business was lunch at the diner at the end of the pier.

Next, we took the ferry over to Balboa Island.

We walked along the boardwalk that is sandwiched between gorgeous homes and the harbor.

Once we reached main street, we were lured into Balboa Nut Company to catch some Pokémon. The mania was everywhere.

We also stopped in our favorite bookshop.

No trip to Balboa would be complete without Balboa Bars.

Finn got destroyed even after putting his ice cream in a bowl.

Once we were sufficiently sugared up, we brought our friends in the local toy shop.

Everyone was itching to go for a swim after hours in the sun, so we took a quick dip in the harbor and then rode the ferry back to the oceanside. The waves were prime for boogie boarding.

Crew just kept hoping those waves would slightly brush up against where he was standing.

He got frustrated when that didn't happen.

Finn steered clear of the waves as well and entertained himself on the beach instead.

He ran down the Jr. Lifeguard ramp over and over and I just couldn't narrow these down any more. He thought it was the funniest thing on the planet.

At that point, we had stayed at the beach so long that our meter time ended and we no longer had to pay to park. We hit up the beach playground because, well, why not?

We couldn't call it a day before Crew jumped in some puddles.

Some days are created to be better than others. We're so glad we threw caution to the wind so we could enjoy the best beach day of the summer with friends.