Since the weather has cooled down quite a bit recently (low 90s) on Thursday we went to walk along the beach. The boys were busy collecting shells while we walked.
The water is warm, but there were only a handful of men swimming. People don’t go to the beach here like they do in California. I haven’t figured out if it’s a seasonal thing and it’s still too hot, but my guess is part of the barrier to going is having to remain fully covered. If I had to wear an abaya and hijab, I wouldn’t want to take my kids to the beach either. Along this mile long stretch of beautiful coastline we saw maybe 10 other people. Thousands of people were driving by in their cars, but no beach goers.
The carrot at the end of this walk was a trip to the Starbucks that is right on the waterfront. Caleb has an armful of shells and he’s complaining that Carter won’t let him put them in his pockets. Carter already has a pile of shells in his pockets and insists that any extra shells are going to pull his shorts off of his body. With those skinny hips of his, I’m sure he was close to losing his shorts.
It’s an amazing location. This a 5 minute drive from our house. Lucy lives up behind the hotel that you see on the hill in the background.
Frapps for all! (Carter shared his vanilla one with Camille.)
Except this guy, who in his long sleeved black t-shirt and sweatpants still wanted to get a caramel steamer.
On our way back the boys spotted huge crabs on the beach below so we scrambled down to take a look.
Did you know crabs are ridiculously fast? I didn’t. The moment they saw movement headed their way they were gone. I guess to grow that old and big they have to be pretty smart and quick. There were hundreds of crabs of all different sizes.
And thousands of crab tracks in the sand.
No luck catching one with all the possible hiding places between the rocks.
In this pool of water left on top of one of the rocks when the tide went out were these tiny fish that the boys tried to catch. They were fast too.
One of the smaller crabs. The biggest ones had to be the size of my hand, not including the claws.
Since the tide had gone out considerably Josh thought we might be able to wade across the waterway to the other part of the beach instead of climbing back up to the road so he went to check it out.
Venturing out, but Caleb wasn’t convinced it was safe. The current was pretty strong as the water was being sucked out into the ocean by the change in tide.
It got about waist deep — remember, I’m hiking this with a 20+ pound baby strapped to my chest and wading across unknown waters in my flip-flops that kept sinking down in the sand. I wasn’t really feeling the adventurous spirit. Especially once I felt something sharp stinging my leg.
At the halfway point the boys pulled themselves up on this little island and then ran back to me to report that the other half was too deep to cross. They probably could have made it without me, but they were looking out for their little sister.
Wading back I started to lose my balance and Caleb steadied me and fell down instead. He proudly stated he sacrificed himself for Mommy and Camille.
After retreating to dry land I looked down at my leg and saw blood. The crazy person in my head was convinced that it was a jellyfish or a stingray or something exotic that would make my leg swell up and have to be amputated, but since it didn’t hurt, I knew there was probably a non-lethal explanation. I don’t know what it was because I didn’t scrape it against any rocks and I was in the middle of the water when I felt it, but days later it is healing normally, so I guess I’ll never know.
After exiting the water we had to scale the rocks to get back up to the road and my Rainbows weren’t providing enough traction so I took them off. Unfortunately, my feet were still wet enough to be slippery so as I went to push off a rock to bridge the gap to the next, my foot slipped and I fell backwards. Luckily the rock was big enough that I half fell, half sat down on it and only ended up banging my elbow in the process. The boys were all very concerned, especially Carter who insisted on holding my hand and helping me up the rest of the way.
All in all, it was a fun and successful outing (and the boys found some great shells!), but next time I’m going to pass on the fjord crossing part of the expedition and stick to the beach. I don’t desire any more encounters with unknown sea creatures.
