Bird Rock

We have lived in the San Diego area for about four and a half years now.  We have spent a lot of time at the beach, but usually beach trips consist of playing in the water, building sand castles, and trying to find Taylor out on his surf board (which is always a challenge because everybody has a white board and a black wetsuit).  Sometimes we head to the children’s pool to see the seals.  But we never go to the tide pools.  That, my friends, is going to change.  We went on Saturday.  We checked on the tides and they were negative lows.  Usually when they get that low, it’s at a time that is very inconvenient.  This weekend was perfect.  Although it’s been quite cold (and still was there), it was so worth it!  We went to Bird Rock in La Jolla and it was amazing!  We got there about an hour before sunset and there was lots to see.

We ran into some boy scouts we knew from church who were also exploring.  They found lots of cool animals and helped us know where and what to look for.  They had found a few lobster, some small octopi, and even an abalone!

The Girl touching the abalone

She thought this octopus was especially cool.

sea slugs

We had a great time and will definitely do it again.

Scripps Pier

Chasing the birds

We spent our Independence Day at the beach.  Some friends of ours throw a big beach party every Memorial Day and 4th of July just north of Scripps Pier.  It’s a great little spot!  We were there ALL day, maybe 15 hours, and had a great time.  There are some tide pools just north of where we were.  It was a great little area where we could kayak, surf, boogie board, and swim.  It’s a spot where there is no lifeguard on duty, so beware of that.  The other downside is that there are no bathrooms.  There is a restaurant right on the beach, just south of the pier that has a restroom.  It was nice and clean, but I don’t think they liked us using it, especially since The Girl had to go at least six times throughout the day.  But in the parking lot just to the east of the restaurant, there is a porta-potty.  Personally, I hate using those, but when you gotta go, you gotta go and beach bathrooms aren’t much better anyway.  Despite our trips back and forth to the toilet, we had a really great time.

Sand Be Gone

We love the beach, but let’s face it, it can be a bit messy. Sometimes thinking about how sandy the kids get can deter me from going at all. The Girl will roll around in the sand and not care. The Boy isn’t so keen on being sandy. He has made progress since last year when he wouldn’t touch it at all, but he still is not a fan of it sticking between his fingers. I can’t blame him. Today he threw a fit because I couldn’t get every little spek of sand off of his wet hand. It’s a good thing I have this cool trick up my sleeve. Baby powder. I won’t go to the beach without it. Just sprinkle it generously on the wet sand that is stuck on your body, then wipe it away with a towel. The powder absorbs the moisture in the sand and it wipes right off. It’s so much more effective than rinsing it off with water. Give it a try. Your beach days will never be the same.

Beach

Have you been to the beach lately? Things have been busy around here. In fact, we haven’t even been around here much lately, hence the lack of posts. But we got back from vacation Tuesday night and on Wednesday we put all responsibilities on hold so we could go to the beach. The surf was up so The Hubby surfed while the kids and I played. The weather was perfect. Then we headed to the cove to see some wildlife. There was no parking until we got to the children’s pool so we explored there and picked up some lunch at In N Out in Pacific Beach. It was the least crowded In N Out I have ever been to. It was a great day! Now get out to the beach before it gets cold again!

Bonfire at the Beach

We love bonfires at the beach.  We look forward to summer evenings spent in the sand around a fire, roasting hot dogs and marshmallows with friends.  I feel like our summer was cut short this year with the broken elbow stifling the first part of the summer.  By the time we were back in play, it was time to leave on vacation and then our summer was over.  Thankfully we have some good friends who saw the need for an end-of-summer bonfire last Friday and made it happen.  The first great part about it was that I wasn’t the one planning it.  That meant that I was not the one who was stressing about getting a fire pit.  We left for Mission Beach soon after school was out, but not before receiving a phone call and learning that the fire pits were all taken there and that my friends had ended up at the bay, namely Ventura Cove.

The Hubby dropped us off and headed over to the beach (because the surf was supposedly bigger than it has been all year, although the tide was too high to make it really worthwhile) to surf for a while.  Finding this spot was perfect!  The fire pit was right next to the parking lot where there was ample parking.  We were right next to bathrooms (that included toilet seats and doors on the stalls).  I also loved that we were at the bay, which meant plenty of sand but no waves!

"I'm giving myself sand gloves!"

We could sit back and watch the kids out in the water without having to chase after them.

We had a great time.  We had our first s’mores of the summer and thoroughly enjoyed our time with friends.

These puppies are not easy to eat with two missing front teeth

You can bet that our next bonfire at the beach will be at Ventura Cove!

To get there: take West Mission Bay Drive to Gleason and turn right (just before Bahia Resort) then turn right into the parking lot.