La Playa, Otra Vez

It's hot. Like, pushing 100 degrees hot. After a fitful night of sleep with wack-o dreams and a baby who from here on out will be called Miss Toothy-Pants (working on her fourth tooth - and my friend was right - it seems to get worse with each additional tooth), I decided it was time to go spend the day at the beach. Summer's practically over and my plans to be at the beach weekly with Vivian Miss Toothy-Pants did not exactly come to fruition, despite starting the summer off with the purchase of a fabulous red umbrella and red beach chair for anticipated beach adventures. It's best to wait for a heat wave here in Northern California, then head to the coast for some nice, normal and considerably cooler weather. Otherwise the beach here tends to be cold and gray.

Happy Miss Toothy Pants; Eyes closed: like mother, like daughter

Cuddling under the umbrella; Umbrella in hand, baby in carrier, imagine a big tote bag on that shoulder, trudging up and down sandy hills=silly sight

We arrived at the beach, found easy street parking, I got Miss TP squared away in my new baby carrier, and had the umbrella in one hand, tote bag full of goodies in the other. Ten steps later, I was sweating. Then I nearly tripped one step after another in the soft downhill sand. I laughed because I was imagining how silly I must look (and I did look silly, I assure you) and I wanted to make sure that if we went down, we went down laughing. Made it to a nice spot by the lifeguard station, set down our accoutrement, and started to set up camp...when I realized it was cold. 100 feet back it was bright and sunny - I had just been there, lugging and sweating. But right here we were seated under a fog bank. Determined to be close to the beautiful waves, we stuck it out. Viv ate, we watched the birds, I ate, we played with some toys...but with goosebumps...and Miss TP was not so happy with the cool (cold) ocean breeze (wind). We lasted maybe an hour before we packed it all up and trudged up the sandy hill again. Not quite the relaxing day at the beach I had imagined.

I'm so glad I have a kid who is genuinely happy for me as I stuff my face with ice cream. Isn't she the greatest?

Of course we had to stop at Marianne's on our way out of town, the best ice cream shop I know (aside from Amy's in Austin, TX). Half chocolate chip, half horchata. Delish.

Now we're back home and I'm sweaty and blah, and oh...how I long to be on that chilly beach. Funny how that works.