You ever wake up after a full night’s sleep in an exotic place with your whole day planned out for you and you don’t even know how it happened? Yeah, we haven’t either. You want to know why? Because we are cheap. It’s that simple but we don’t let that little hiccup stop this frugal pair from having fun! We always manage to find inexpensive and sometimes FREE things to do with our weekends. This brings us to a reoccurring post that we like to call “Perils of a Penny Pincher.”

One of my latest outings was this Labor Day weekend in San Luis Obispo. I stayed with Nick’s family and explored a gorgeous city that I had never really been to before! We met up with some friends (Kerry and Cahill) at a nearby sand dune and decided to surf down it. Have you tried it? It’s fun, free, and you can take home all the sand you can carry! I don’t think you can beat that!

(At the start of our 20 minute hike through the sand, we were greeted by a sign that cautioned: “Unexploded Ordinance May Remain in this Area.” I would be lying if I said I didn’t want to turn around and grab a burrito instead. But Kerry said, “let’s do this!” so we did it!)

(Things started out a little hairy, no one was moving very quickly down the massive hill we had just spent the last 20 minutes walking up. In fact, it was just a big sandy mess.)

(There were a few dozen crashes but an equal amount of laughs.)

(Cahill even did a few flips!)

(I finally decided to give it a whirl and slid down the hill on my first try!)

(Eventually we figured out that if you get a little push, you FLY down the hill! That’s when things got really fun!)

(Cahill was the last to get pushed, he made it to the very bottom of the hill. I wonder what ever happened to him…)

Overall, this was a lot of fun but here are a few tips I picked up: wax whatever board you are using, don’t use cardboard, start off with a good push, and lastly, don’t be afraid of embarrassing yourself- it’s good for you.