$20 family fun day, san pedro edition.

yesterday i had a rare saturday off, so we spent the day in san pedro, going to a couple of my favorite places. first we went to crafted at the port of los angeles for lunch and shopping, then headed over to the cabrillo aquarium. not only was this a really great, relaxing day having fun together as a family, but it was mostly free!

crafted is basically a permanent craft fair thats open every weekend, and i really love it for three reasons: 
1. its got free admission AND free parking (which in the la area is nearly impossible to find) 2. there are all kinds of crafters and artisans, and since its permanent, everyone makes a cute little miniature store rather than a craft booth and you never know what kind of neat things youll find.
3. but most importantly, they have a different gourmet food truck every day. 

that last one is actually why we went, because the grilled cheese truck was there! on my only saturday off for the whole month! how perfect was that? and let me tell you, that was one fantastic lunch. i got the cheesy mac melt (sharp cheddar and mac and cheese on french bread), james got the french onion soup melt (gruyere with caramelized onions on french bread with au jus for dipping), and we shared a half order of tots with roasted garlic aioli. 

and goodness gracious this was one of the most delicious meals ive ever had! everything from the cheese to the bread to the sauces was perfect, after we finished it was tempting to get back in line for another sandwich, not because we were still hungry (because we certainly werent), but because the food was SOOOOO GOOOD. the entire meal cost $15.50, which wasnt exactly expensive, just not really something we can do all the time (though i intentionally keep our grocery budget strictly at $50 a week so we have room for this kind of indulgence at least once a week). 

after crafted we went down the street to the cabrillo aquarium to learn about the fishies. as a kid we went to this aquarium a lot so it was really nice to get to share it with james and alice. cause as you can see alice REALLY loves fish. 

cabrillo is one of my favorite field trips cause not only is it really fun with lots to look at (and a tidepool touch tank!), while still being small enough for a toddler to enjoy, but admission is free (with suggested donation), and parking is only $1 an hour.  basically its a poor persons aquarium of the pacific. 

since alice is only one we only lasted about an hour and a half at the aquarium before we needed to get home, but all in all it was a wonderful day out as a family, AND set us back less than $20.