Who Needs Chocolate And Flowers When You Have Sand?!

The weather on the West Coast has been beautiful this week and this weekend the weather was in the 70s...yes, in the 70s!! Since Valentine's Day usually focuses on dinners and movies that I would enjoy, I planned a fun weekend getaway for Jason. Sometimes it is nice to do something special that he would like to do...I really enjoy planning special things for him! He's really been wanting to ride ATVs at the Pismo dunes and with this being one of our last weekends in California, I decided it would be perfect for a trip to the Pismo dunes.

He came home Friday after work and I told him the good news for his Valentine's Day present. I'm not sure he slept longer than two hours at a time that night....he was so excited to explore the sand dunes! IWe wanted to take a "less traveled route" on our drive to the coast and it was HORRIBLE. The road was so narrow, steep and crooked that we had to stop a few times so I could get some fresh air (aka--get sick). It was one of the longest drives, ever! Once we got to the interstate, the motion sickness went away and I was ready to see what the day had in store. Once we arrived in Pismo, we walked into a rental company and discovered that they were running a special on their ATV rentals, rent one, get one free.
Once we got everything paid for and signed, we were on our way. We headed out to their small trailer on the beach, watched a safety video, given our equipment and sent out on our way. At first, we were extremely cautious...dirtbikes, fourwheelers, sand buggies and big trucks were everywhere. The hills in the dunes were so big and steep that it was difficult to see what was on the other side. We found this shortly after we got on our bikes... It didn't take too long before we were one of those ATVs that were going up and down the steep dunes with a bit of speed...

We had a 2 hour rental and it was so much fun. With about 20 minutes left before we had to go back, we decided to go and sit by the ocean for a few minutes. The view was awesome.... After our adventure in the Pismo dunes, we emptied out the sand from our shoes and socks and headed downtown to try and find something to eat. We read a lot of good reviews about a small, local restaurant, Splash Cafe, that was famous for their clam chowder. We knew we had to try Splash Cafe, since this would probably be our last visit to Pismo. We parked and started walking towards the restaurant and saw that the line was all the way outside the door and around the building.

Crazy as it sounds...we waited in the long line. We had to try the famous chowder that so many people would wait so long for in such beautiful weather. The line moved pretty fast and we were inside and ordering our lunch before we knew it. Clam chowder in a bread bowl and clam strips and fries were definitely worth the wait. It was a delicious lunch to go with the day...I'm glad we decided to wait. After lunch, we needed to walk off a little bit of the food that we scarfed down. We walked down to the pier and saw that there was a surfing competition going on, which got Jason all excited. He used to surf A LOT when he was younger and when he lived in Hawaii, so watching the competition brought back some good memories. We had the best time riding in the sand, laughing at each other and enjoying the amazing views that Pismo has to offer. I love seeing Jason carefree and happy and I got to see this side of him in full force this weekend. Best Valentine's Day so far...I love seeing my husband so happy!