A Day at the Beach

One great vacation tradition is Keith's homemade breakfasts. Last Sunday was a continuation of that well-loved tradition.

Now, I'm not an egg eater, so I get a pared down version, but it is yum-o. Today's breakfast consisted of maple bacon (real bacon, not the turkey bacon we usually eat), fresh homemade hashbrowns (not frozen), and Texas bagels with cream cheese. We had also picked up some OJ at the store that was a blend with bananas and strawberries.

We should eat like this every day, but that might not be to good for our waistlines.

We lazed around in the morning. Got up late. Ate breakfast. Didn't rush anything.

Our plan: Go to the beach. Eat dinner.

I think we can get through that to-do list with time to spare.

After we ate, we grabbed beach chairs, towels, toys and walked to the beach.

I couldn't pass up the beautiful flowers that were along the path. I'm not sure what type of flower this is but it was all over the place. The flower itself reminded me of a tropical bird.

Finally, we are at the beach and we set up camp.

It was a beautiful day: nice breezes, fluffy clouds, blue skies. Picture perfect!

Now, those of us that come from warmer climates, that might be considered a little spoiled when it comes to the desired warmth of their waters, might be a little surprised at how chilly the Pacific is. Even if they have been to the beach in CA many many times.

So, here is proof that I'm a big wimp regarding chilly water.

Since we had beach toys, we built sandcastles. And by we, I mean Leah, Justin and Emma. At first, they started out with just the wet sand that was sitting right beside them. When they tried to build on top of it, it just crumbled.

So, water became the desired ingredient. And when they continued to add sand to the bucket, it overflowed and made sand stalagmites.

Now, there were a couple of people surfing with these parachute like things and it looked both difficult and fun. Actually, I think this looked easier than the real kind of surfing, which I don't think I'll ever try.

So enjoyed spending the weekend with this girl.

Emma and I went looking for sea shells. There weren't many on the beach so it really was a hunt. Most were broken and I was really wanting something whole. And when I found this sand dollar that was completely intact, I was estatic. You can see in the background the place in the sand where I picked it up, where it also looks like you can see where whatever was living inside escaped. Or maybe not.

Emma brought the shovel with us. I'm not sure if it was for the joy of using beach toys or if she just didn't want to get her hands dirty. But, with all the sandcastles that were built today, I'm thinking it was just a fun thing to do.

I was struck by the beauty of the sand. It seemed so glossy and I just loved how the black and tan made such interesting bands in the sand. I've got several pictures that I hope to be able to use as backgrounds for the scrapbook pages that will be worked on shortly.

Emma and I found lots of seaweed.

At one point during the day, we saw a little boy about 6 years old walking with his dad on the beach. The boy was dragging behind him a long line of seaweed that really looked like a rope. We watched this rope of seaweed pass in a very cartoonish way. It kept on going and going and going and when the boy and his dad had long passed us, finally, about 50 feet behind them there was this ball of seaweed (similar to the little ball above the 'leaf' of seaweed in above picture but much bigger) about the size of a soccer ball. It was a sight.

Emma thought this seaweed looked like a spine.

There were a few sea gulls at the beach but not so many that they were an annoyance. We could see some of the birds diving for their dinner out in the ocean.

After our trek for seashells, we came back to find Justin and Keith standing near the water line. Emma joined them and soon after Leah did. It took me a bit to realize that they were letting the waves bury their feet in the wet sand. I also joined them, just in time to see something really cool.

While the waves were coming and going, Leah saw something. She reached down to get it and it was down under the sand a bit and she struggled to pick it up. And when she pulled out a huge shell and we saw it pull itself inside, we realized that she had found...

... a live muscle! She put it back down so that it could hide itself and I video taped it for a while. I only stopped the video just to get a quick snapshot (at Leah's request) and then I was going to go right back to taping again, but wouldn't you know it, my batteries die that very moment. And these are the backup batteries! Agh. It probably would have been boring for you to watch but it was just fascinating standing there watching it bury itself with each successive wave. It only took 3 or 4 more waves after I stopped taping and the muscle was complete hidden underneath our feet.

That was totally cool.

Afterwards, we sat in our beach chairs for a bit, hiding our feet in the sand just to warm them up. Then it was back to clean up for dinner. That night's movie was The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Rings at Leah's request.

Boy you just can't ask for a better day at the beach. To bad we were leaving for home on Monday.

Sponges grow in the ocean. That just kills me. I wonder how much deeper the ocean would be if that didn't happen.
~ Stephen Wright