Bits of My Life: vacation: the part where we went to the beach

When I went to visit my aunt a couple of weeks ago, we had a bucket list of things we wanted to do:

1. Go swimming.
2. Go shopping.
3. Go to the zoo.
4. Go to the beach.
5. Do a craft.

I was planning to stay 5, or 6, or 7 days (whatever felt right), so this list probably doesn't seem too overachieving to the normal person.

We are not normal people.

We are lazy people. Maybe not lazy, but not always motivated either. We like to sit around and talk about all the things we want to do, and then never actually do them. Of course, this leaves us feeling lazy and bored, but we've grown accustomed to the feeling.

But this time...we did it...ALL. Even the crafting, which happened just a few hours before I left Sunday evening. I'm sort of amazed at us considering the amount of diapers and snacks that were required for each outing, AND it was so fun. We went, went, went, but since our visit was on the longer side, we also had plenty of time to sit, sit, sit.

The pinnacle of the week was definitely our trip to Santa Cruz. With three little ones under three years old, we knew that a whole day at the beach would be exhausting for everyone, and frankly, I just wasn't up to it, so we planned an evening trip. Okay, "planned" is a bit of an exaggeration. Here's how it really happened:

Saturday morning: YAY! Lets go to the beach!!
Later Saturday morning: Sure, let's go to the beach.
Saturday lunchtime: Let's check the tide table, wouldn't it be fun to go at low tide for the kids? Um, low tide is right now.
Later Saturday afternoon: Are we going to the beach? Ummmmm......
Saturday at 4:00: GET UP!! Yes, we are tired and it would be really easy to just keep sitting here, but we ARE going to the beach, and if we don't start NOW, we will never make it. Let's go!

We made it out of the house about an hour later, that is, after making our second failed attempt at arranging single car transportation. Too many carseats + one vehicle with a broken third row + one vehicle completely lacking a third row = two vehicle trip. Bummer. But, we made it out the door and arrived at Sea Bright Beach in Santa Cruz around 6:00-ish (I really can't remember what time it was), and it was so very, very nice.

The weather was perfect, we didn't even need sweatshirts, and with the tide coming in, the waves were a perfect mix of lake-shore lapping waves with a few big ones mixed in to give the kiddos a little thrill.

Laci was less than enthusiastic about the whole wave thing. I was almost certain we would have to leave before she even got her toes wet. But, eventually, she got closer and closer, and before you knew it, she was jumping and running around, asking for bigger waves. Mia, my little daredevil, would have loved to run free into the ocean, if only I would let her. Obviously, I did not.

After playing at the beach about an hour, we drove over the wharf and ate some clam chowder in sourdough bread bowls. Yum. I was freezing in my wet jeans, but everyone else (who was dry), seemed to be perfectly comfortable. We stopped at a cute little candy shop, where we stood in line for half an hour for some fudge (which was really, really good by the way - maple fudge, way better than regular chocolate fudge), and then we headed back home.

It was a silent drive back as the kids barely made it to the highway before they crashed, and then I transferred their sandy, limp bodies to bed. A little sand on the sheets never hurt anyone.

So, that's the story of how we went to the beach, and these are the pictures, which tell more of the story than I ever could.

A little story about a box of Pirate's Booty: I didn't' want to carry the whole giant bag of Pirate's Booty, so I put some in an empty Cheez-It box to take with us. Mia likes to eat, well, constantly, so I knew we would need a snack. Well, we got so excited about going into the ocean that we quickly forgot about the half-full box of snacks and left it on our blanket some fifty feet way. Ten minutes later, I look over and a sea gull has found our booty. Then another, then another. Before long, there are a dozen sea gulls raging war on each other over a now empty box of crackers. They take my grocery sack and spread its contents twenty feet across the sand, only to find that there isn't any more food.

The moral of the story: We are beach rookies and the sea gulls probably saw us coming a mile away. Jackpot, they said.

Also, despite my having several large towels in my vehicle, we ended up at the beach with a single blanket the size of a bath mat. Rookies, I tell you, rookies.