Stuart took a day off on Thursday to take us to the beach.  But it was rainy and cloudy, so we took our time to drive south.  We stopped by the outlet first to buy some clothes for the kids and had lunch at In and Out.  The boys were given a chef hat and some stickers at the burger joint, and they were very happy wearing it.  They also really enjoyed the hamburger and fries, and Connor even said it is now his favorite food.  Then Stuart drove down to Monterey while the three fell asleep in the car.  We spent some time at Dennis the Menace park first.  Last year, Logan was nervous with the wooden bridge, but this year he just ran over it without any hesitation.  Afterward, he headed to the Carmel beach and had no problems finding parking.  It was no longer cloudy at that point and the temperature was comfortable.  Before we arrived, the boys had talked with each other about playing with water and sand again, and once we walked down the sand hill, they immediately went out to the water.  They started building sand walls for defense, and later moved onto running and throwing sand to the water.  The temperature was perfect and it never got too crowded.  The boys had such a wonderful time playing on their own.  Before we realized it, we were there for over two hours.  So we slowly wrapped up and cleaned up before getting back in the car.  We then drove over the Fisherman’s Wharf and found a restaurant where the boys could have some fish and chips that they requested.  The boys were proud wearing their In And Out hats again, walking around at the wharf and looking at the boats too.   By the time we returned home, we had been out for 10 hours; it was an awesome day.