Windy Beach Day

Monday morning, after a HUGE breakfast, the kids and I drove to Orange County to pick up my parents at the airport.  The car GPS gave me three choices and I foolishly picked the shortest distance.  I'm just glad Makenna fell asleep soon after we left because it was even making me carsick going through all the switchbacks over and through the mountains.  45 minutes into the drive, the road was closed.  Tons of barriers and signs with no option but to turn around and backtrack 10 miles to turn off and head in the wrong direction.  We did eventually make it to the airport and they hadn't even waited long.  This was the first time I have driven in southern CA.  Actually this trip is the first time in CA period.  Busy roads.  No sense as far as fast or slow lanes.  But uncommonly polite.  Time and time again when I would turn signal to switch lanes and slow a bit so the car to my side could pass to let me in behind, that car would slow down to let me in first.  It kept throwing me off.  

From the airport, we went straight to the beach.  It was chilly and windy (even for the beach), but the best day.  (Thanks to the Tsunami closures Friday, it turned out to be the only day.)  The weather was yucky enough that the parking attendants didn't bother showing up, so we got free parking and only saw a handful of people.  

The kids didn't mind.  They got plenty sandy and wet before eventually giving in to the wind.  

Ahhh, sandy toes. 

Jess filled a quart sized baggie with treasured shells.  We only kept one of the big ones.  Isaac has recently decided that mussels are his favorite food.  Makenna loves them too, but they can't trump salmon.  The otters beat us to all these. 

Makenna made a good, but unsuccessful effort digging for clams.  She eventually dug a hole, put a couple Chex Mix pieces in it and told me to watch for them to come up.  

Isaac spent a chunk of time clearing the beach of anything large enough to hurl back into the ocean.  The stick soon said good-bye, spearlike.  

This flock of pelicans flew up and down the coast several times.  So much more majestic than the seagulls.  

I don't know what kind of birds they are, but their heads and necks put jack hammers to shame.   

Proof I was there. 

Playing "where will the surf come to?"

I think they are watching the drilling birds here. 

Beach light is always beautiful.

This became the highlight of the day.  Once we got out some crackers, the seagulls came.  The wind was so strong that they could hover all about us on different planes.  It felt like we had 50 kites staked all around.  They would catch bits in the air and would have eaten out of my hand if I had been brave enough to hold my hand out to see it through.

We finally called it quits and went to find out hotel.