Date Three: Surf's Up {52 Dates With My Husband}

When you live in Southern California, it's pretty hard to escape the surfer nation that exists out here. There is something quite spectacular about going out to the beach and watching these guys and gals catch waves! While I've never been on a surfing board and don't think I'll be starting any time soon, one of the things we thought would be pretty spectacular to do while out here was to visit the California Surf Museum, in Oceanside! This past weekend, we decided that would be our date this week!

For the record, Gene was against the hand gesture, but I just had to be hokie!

While we had been living here for years never knowing about it's existence  the California Surf Museum is one of the main attractions in Oceanside! It's a small little building with a few awesome exhibits that is most definitely worth the cost of admission. We got in for free as part of a museum exchange program since we're members at OMA and MOMM, but the cost is normally something like $5.

While there we were able to see a history of surfboards and an awesome Hobie exhibit (which is what we're posing with up there!) as well as a few other exhibits and this very awesome permanent installation:

In the back of the museum, you can duck outside real quick into a little courtyard where a local Oceanside artist, John Lamb, has painted this amazing scene! The colors are wildly fantastic and you just feel happy while out there!

We headed back inside to stop for a minute at the Bethany Hamilton exhibit:

The swim suit she was wearing, and board she was riding, when attacked by the shark.

The woman at the museum was telling someone that the Hamiltons had a San Diego connection, even though they resided in Hawaii. After the now famous shark attack took Bethany's arm, the Oceanside Surf Museum set up a special exhibit in her honor. Word apparently made it to Bethany from some friends and she asked the museum if they would like to display her board. So there it is, in a small surf town along the California coast. It was inspiring to see. When I watched Soul Surfer, I couldn't believe the story of hope and resiliency portrayed. This young girl- would lose her arm, and within months be back in the water. It was absolutely awe inspiring to see her board and watch a little video of her and her friends!

After our stop at the museum we enjoyed an amazing lunch at 333 Pacific! It was the perfect end to an absolutely wonderful date day!