In case you were curious what playing hooky from work to go on a field trip with your sister, her three-year-old and ten-month twins to the beach is like, I've prepared this post especially for you.

1. A car ride through the winding hills whilst said toddler excitedly asks repeatedly "Mama, Tete, we go to beach? Play in ocean?" AKA: "Are we there yet?" but cuter.

2. We arrive at the beach. Toddler's eyes nearly pop out of his head as he gleefully beelines for the water. I think he might burst wide open from the look of sheer, unadulterated joy on his face.

3. The twins repeatedly try to escape the confines of their large blanket/prison and eat sand.



4. Waves attack the toddler, who couldn't be happier, but is now soaked. Since he is essentially a string-bean with no body fat, toddler loses a layer of clothing in the interest of trying to stave off hypothermia. But we all know kids like to run around stark-raving naked anyhow, so, come to think of it, the waves and the toddler might be on the same team. Those sneaky devils.




5. Flinging, hurling fistfuls of wet sand comes next, which is the best thing in the universe a boy can do. (This is quite an amazing progression for wee MasterQ, who, until recently, HATED the feel of sand on his hands and feet.)



6. More rogue wave attacks and one shivering little boy require retreat from the water's edge.


7. Toddler spends the rest of his time at the beach literally swimming in the warm sand and being buried by his auntie and mama.

8. Impromptu beach day: Massive success.

There are loads of beaches to visit in California, but if you happen to be in the Northerly part of the state, and you happen to be touring Muir Woods, you should definitely drive the extra ten minutes and visit Muir Beach.
This tiny beach is one of my favorites, cozy and intimate, extremely relaxed. Part of the landscape leading up to the beach is actually a habitat to help facilitate a species of endangered Salmon.

Be sure to visit on a cloudy, overcast, cool day (most days along NorCal's coastline) and pack a picnic, bonfire makings, blankets and a volleyball. Then just sit back and enjoy the sand and the chilly surf. Don't forget to wear sunscreen. Those overcast days will do some real damage if you're not paying attention.



If you don't have a dog to play catch with, don't sweat it, this one cozied right up to me. He was content to stick with me for as long as I'd throw the ball for him.

Last weekend I headed down the coast to Santa Cruz, California. It's about a 1.5 hour drive from where I live (depending on traffic). I met up with a group of friends and spent the day relaxing, sleeping, exploring and grubbing on potluck food.

My exploration phase took me on a four-mile walk down the beach to a pier. At the end I found one of these:


Eventually I reached the next beach over, Seacliff beach, which boasts a long pier with this at the end of it:

The SS Palo Alto. But it's called the Concrete Ship. It's very stinky. (Birds, seals, all sleeping and pooping there... you do the math.)


Here's what Wikipedia has to say about it:

The Palo Alto was a concrete ship built as a tanker at the end of World War I. She was built by the San Francisco Shipbuilding Company at the U.S. Naval Shipyard in Oakland, California. She was launched on May 29, 1919, too late to see service in the war.^[1] Her sister ship was the SS Peralta.
She was mothballed in Oakland until 1929, when she was bought by the Seacliff Amusement Corporation and towed to Seacliff State Beach in Aptos, California. A pier was built leading to the ship, and she was sunk a few feet in the water so her keel rested on the bottom. There she was refitted as an amusement ship, with amenities including a dance floor, swimming pool and a café.
The company went bankrupt two years later and the ship cracked at the mid section. She was stripped of her fittings and left as a fishing pier. Eventually she deteriorated to the point were she was unsafe for even this use and was closed to the public. Today she remains at Seacliff Beach and serves as an artificial reef for marine life. (Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SS_Palo_Alto)

Altogether a very interesting day of exploration.

Last Saturday I was supposed to go for a bike ride with my sister. But then she bailed on me with no fore-warning, which was seriously annoying (especially because I'd passed on several weekend trips so I could go biking with her). So I ended up going out to Point Reyes and hiking. I went a few months back and did a hike to Sculpture beach (there's an old blog with photos somewhere). This time I wanted to spend some serious time on the beach so I chose a hike called the Limantour Spit. It basically paralleled sand dunes on one side and the ocean on the other. Perfect! It was couple of miles each way. Once I got past the populated beach area and headed away from the people, I saw more and more wildlife. Flocks of Pelicans, cranes, crabs and occasionaly a Seal would poke it's head out of the water and stare at me. I reached what I thought was the end of the beach (it pretty much turned right, sharply and then looked like it ended into a rock wall) I sat myself down and ate my lovely Whole Foods Turkey Sandwich, apple and home-made chocolate chip cookies. Yum! A seagull tried it's best to look cute enough to feed throughout my lunch, but we all know that Seagulls are rats with wings! No food for him! (okay, okay, I did give him some of my turkey sandwich!)



California is a study in Microclimates. It's astonishing really, how quickly climates change around here. My trip to work is either a 24-minute train ride or a 30 minute drive in traffic (12 minutes if there is no traffic!). During that 24 minute train ride, the weather can be sometimes like this: 80 degrees at 8am in Walnut Creek. 5 miles down the road, 86 degrees in Lafayette. Four miles later you drive through the Caldecott tunnel (a tunnel through the hill that separates Oakland from the inner east bay), On the other side of the tunnel, it is a chilly, overcast, 65 degrees. Not kidding!



So after my lunch on the point of the spit, I laid back to take a nap and enjoy the sunshine, which came and went about every five minutes. It would alternate between sun, cold and fog drizzle in a time-lapsed loop. Pretty incredible.



When I got up from my little nap, I looked at the water only to see a seal sticking its head out of the water directly in front of me, staring at me. So I stared back. And then I grabbed my camera. He started heading down to the right and I followed, only a few feet later a really cool sight came into view: Over a hundred seals napping on the beach in a giant flock. They weren't the gross, huge harbor seals on pier 39, theses were darling little seals, light brown and white and black. As I walked towards them, they streamed into the water en masse. I took a ton of photos. The closer I got, the more rushed into the water and just waited there, heades bobbing in and out of the small bay, looking at me and waiting for me to leave.



After I took the photos I wanted, I headed back out to my car and then home. The fog was just starting to roll in and take over the beach and the sun was hidden for the day.



If only every day was a beach day!

We finally reached an arch that we had to maneuver through as the waves receded to make it around the point.






I didn’t do so well, I’m not gonna lie. I'm not the most graceful/balanced person in the world. Not even close. I slipped right in, drenching myself through all of my layers and dunking my lovely new(ish) digital SLR. Great.
The biggest concern at this point was not the camera (it’s under warranty still) but the cold. We were a good three miles of sand and hills away from the car, we weren’t done with the hike, it was drizzling rain (from the fog) up to that point, but had just started to actually rain. Thank goodness for the priesthood. Between them and my backpack, we had everything we needed (to make sure Kamikazee Christy survived, lol). I had the first aid kid (for my bleeding cuts and scrapes) and they had towels and a spare fleece. Couldn’t do anything about my soaking shorts but ring them out. Did a quick change and then joined the group in the mouth of a cave for lunch watching the waves and the rain. We explored a bit more and then headed back. Luckily I had some dry socks, shoes and pants in the car (a must when going to the beach in NorCal), so I changed and got all warm and toasty for the ride home… No cold, no pneumonia, just a really fun day!