Corona del Mar

Thursday took us south of LA county to the O.C. Our darling cousin Eloise invited us to help her celebrate her eleventh birthday by getting sand between our toes at the beach. (And sand in our ears, and our hair, and between our . . . you get the picture.) It was a lovely day.

Addison swam with dad and got tumbled around a bit in the rough water. Douglas did a little boogie boarding and the boys played in the sand getting splendidly filthy! I seemed to be the only one who suffered from sunburn. Completely my own fault. Here is a person who for several years now has avoided the sun like the plague, uses sunscreen everyday and stays generally away from tan lines. So why I thought it would be a good idea to get a "little color" is beyond me. I plead temporary insanity.

This picture is from the California-Beaches-something-or-other website. This little cove is a nature preserve with some very cool tide pools. Unfortunately, the tide was pretty high when we were there. But we did see a seal bobbing in the water. And because you aren't allowed to take anything of the beach, there were many cools shells for the kids to find.

However, Don't be Fooled by the beautiful picture. Here are our advertising dollars at work. In reality, the sand was far from pristine! Imagine it covered instead by piles of kelp and seaweed. These mounds of kelp held a treasure trove of crab claws, lobster tails and other nifty treats. It was pretty messy, perhaps a weather phenomenon is churning things up more than usual? I don't know.