The weather is growing a bit warmer.....and we were hoping warmer still for a trip to the beaches of Southern California where we are spending a Spring Break with teenage daughter  in tow. Last Saturday, we drove down to OC and started our vacation with the annual trip to Balboa Island in Newport Harbor.

I grew up n Southern California and spent summers on the Balboa Peninsula. It was an unspoken rule that Frozen Bananas and Balboa Beach Bars were part of the territory. Every weekend, we would make the trek from the beach house up to the Fun Zone to play in the arcades and bump into our posse of cousins with our bumper cars....pedal to the metal. And every weekend we would anticipate and salivate thinking about the big decision.....chocolate sprinkles, nuts or butter brickle.

Often, my mom or my ant would take my cousin, Jenny and I on the Ferry ride across to Balboa Island to shop. We would stop for lunch at the old Jolly Roger restaurant and eat burgers and then stop at the Original Frozen Banana stand....of which there are two mere steps away from each other. I am not sure it mattered to us at the time which one took our money.

This year, the daughter and I got Balboa Bars with Butter Brickle....Tim got a Frozen Banana. The pleasure is still as strong.  We each took our frozen dessert on a stick and wandered along the beach front to see the lights of the Balboa Fun Zone and the Balboa Pavilion across the Bay....

With our stomachs full...and the moon as well....we strolled back to our car for the final leg down the coast.