Camping At Doheny State Beach -- Day 2

Day 2, still no sun.  It was crazy how overcast it stayed.  And stayed.  We had lots more sun when we camped at the beach in April.  But even with the clouds, it wasn't really cold.  We might have even complained of the heat if the sun had been out full force.  The weather made for an even more relaxed state of being.


Aaron enjoys his morning cup of joe. 

An important rule in camping is to get as dirty as possible, as soon as possible.  William played cars in the dirt while I made breakfast.  Bacon is a camping tradition.  

Then Daddy read stories.  In my packing rush, I forgot to pack any books.  However, on our early morning walk, we discovered one of the camp hosts had a give and get bookshelf in front of their site. It was a great find.  The kids were excited to find books there and we borrowed a few. "It's like a campground library!" said James.

Camping tip: say hello to the camp hosts.  They are helpful and nice.  Last time we borrowed a broom from them.  This time, books.  

And how do you get that job anyway? It seems like a pretty nice set up!

Next the boys and I were off to the beach.  Lilly and Daddy tried to nap.  We spent about 2 hours collecting goods and building this spectacular sand village.  Our friend Solene helped.  They had so much fun and so did I.  It was the perfect way to spend the morning,

This is only one small part of the village.  It was pretty big.

All that building made us hot.  So a little wave jumping was in order.

See William trying to make a move on Solene?  He really, really liked spending so much time with her building castles.  His nose scrunched up and his cheeks got red when he said, "Mommy, I like Solene a lot.  She's nice to me."  There is a whole new blog post on the books about this topic!

While we were playing in the waves, we saw a fisherman just down the beach from us reel this in.

A leopard shark!

We saw him right up close and some of the kids even touched him.  One of the places leopard sharks like to live is in kelp beds, so that is probably why he was caught there.  There was a lot of kelp.

He was really big.  After some pictures, the shark was set free.  The kids claimed to see his fin for hours.

The day ended with a fun adventure.  

As the tide was coming in, the shore break got to be quite large.  Especially if you were standing on a large pile of seaweed that the waves crashed into.  The kids all huddled together and waited for the waves to crash on them.

Then they ran away screaming when it did.  You can see one of the older boys actually got knocked down from this wave.  He stood right out front.  That is his foot or hand in the picture below.

Here comes another one!

Look at them run!

I admit, while they were doing this, I kept thinking of my mother's greatest fear: a rouge wave taking them out to sea.  And then thinking how I'd have to drop my camera in the sand to try to save them.

Apparently the life guard had the same thought because he made them all stop.

But it was fun while it lasted,

Another great day of beach play.  Another great night of camp fires, the kids running around like maniacs and crashing hard from a long day of play.  

I am most definitely a fan of camping!

Love from,

Greta