Rule #143: Waves are scary, mist is spooky, but the beach is awesome!

We recently took a trip to San Diego. It was lovely, we all had a great time. Because Graham is still fairly little we did several half days at parks and lounging at the condo for the other half. This resulted in us going to the same parks on two different days. I don't want to try to remember which picture went to which day. So I have grouped the pictures into parks and will merge the days together. 

The boys did really well on the plane flight. I am glad that it was only just over an hour. I'm also glad that both Doug and Susan have Ipads to keep the children thoroughly entertained. :) Evan squealed with delight as the plane took off and landed. Much better than the previous flight, to Colorado. Where he shouted "I want to get off" over and over until the plane had leveled in the air. Hooray for growing up!

My little family ended up going to the beach three different days. On Sunday while the rest of the Davis' were at Sea World, Alex, the boys and I went to Oceanside. That, apparently, is a very popular beach. SO many people. Evan had fallen asleep in the car on the way there, so I took Graham to the beach and waited for Alex and Evan to join us. 

I honestly thought Graham would love the beach. He really didn't. I placed him in the sand, and he hated how in got into his shoes. So I took his shoes off, still not good. I then carried him to the waves, and he was terrified. :) I took him back to the sidewalk and we walked and people watched for a while. When Alex and Evan came, we tried it again. Still not good. We didn't have a bucket and shovel yet, and I think it might have made a difference. But, it may just have been too crowded for both my boys. 

Oceanside has a fantastic wooden pier that seems to go on for miles and miles. We walked along the pier all the way to the end, watched the surfers, looked at the waves from afar (a much safer distance I guess)  On the pier we bought two bucket and shovels, for future beach trips.

We had a nice seaside dinner then went back to the condo to meet up with the rest of the family.

On tuesday we ventured to another beach. Hoping for a better reaction from the boys. This time Doug joined us while Susan and Jeff were kayaking. We took a shot at Tide beach. Alex was really hoping to see some tide pools, like the name suggests. And maybe there are, but we were not there at low tide :( It was really fun anyway. We didn't know there was a parking lot, so we parked on the street near an access ally and walked to the beach from there.

We walked down at least a hundred steps to get to the beach. There was mist all around and you could hardly see the ocean when we first got there. I liked it. It felt adventurous and magical. Looking on either side were steep cliffs, which I called the Cliffs of Insanity. :) (I really wish I had taken some pictures of them in the mist....bummer)

Even with all the magic my boys didn't instantly take to the beach. Once we started building sandcastles with the buckets they warmed up and had a great time! The sand was PERFECT for building sandcastles, and for drawing in the sand. Wet enough to hold it's shape but not muddy.

By the time we were ready to leave the mist had vanished and we saw someone paddle boarding on the water. He had probably been there the whole time, but we couldn't see him through the mist.

One of our last days we went to Tide beach again, this time in the evening. No mist this time, and we parked in the parking lot too. Which meant a few more people, but it was deserted compared to Oceanside. Still not low tide :( More sandcastles were built, more fun was had. By the end of the evening Evan had put *one* foot in the water as it rushed us to him on the rocks. That's success in my mind.

This was the first time that Evan and Graham had seen the ocean. They might be too little to remember, guess we'll just have to go back some day! And maybe someday, we'll get *two* feet in the water!