Camping & the Beach on NOVEMBER 15!!!

Curt called me up from school Monday morning and asked if I wanted to go camping. Of course I did! We didn't get to go at all this summer--besides the father and sons and father daughter campouts--because of our busy schedule. My only concern was that it was November and we might freeze overnight. He said the weather was supposed to be nice and close to 80 this weekend so we booked our campsite. We couldn't have asked for a more wonderful camping trip!! The kids were so excited to roast marshmallows, wield a flashlight and sleep together in the tent. After we roasted marshmallows we took a late night walk down to the moonlit beach and watched the waves. The next morning after breakfast we went down to the beach around 8:30 or 9am and had the beach mostly to ourselves until noon. We dug a huge hole, played in the waves, boogie boarded, found seashells, explored the beach, and searched for sandcrabs to name a few. A CA friend once told us the reason everything in California is more expensive is that we pay a weather tax on the awesome weather here. Well this weekend I was more than happy to pay our weather tax. It was AMAZING!!
(BELOW--Curt couldn't contain his excitement to be going camping)


















TOP LEFT--a few feet beyond this fence was a sheer drop off down to the beach. Our campsite was 50 yards from this fence. We went to sleep to the sound of the waves. It was SO COOL!
TOP RIGHT--Nicole and Isaac examining Rolly Pollies--or pill bugs of which there were plenty. This was a nice feature as there is a lot of poison oak in these parts, and the bugs kept them out of the bushes.
BOTTOM LEFT--Nicole and Isaac on the trail down to the beach from our campsite.
BOTTOM RIGHT--the trail from our campsite down to the beach.







I was playing with the panaramic setting on our camera. Do you notice anything unusual about this picture? Nicole is a twin!!



Our own little sand crabs










Quite a few big waves came up over the small ridgeline of the beach. We are usually safe at the top of the ridge, but today after moving our shoes and snack bag and blanket multiple times we got smart and put them on our chairs . . . not sure it mattered at this point, they were all soaking anyway!


Our big hole is a pool now!


After several big waves coming up over the hill onto our spot, Ryan was carrying the boogie board around and very concerned about "my board!"



Digging/searching for sandcrabs . . .








Curt skim boarding in our pool






Nicole says "Mom come see this piece of seaweed, it's moving!" Upon closer inspection we think a small trumpet fish was washed on shore for us to see!! It was trying to escape from our bucket, so Nicole speedily threw it back.


After we checked out of our campsite we headed over to the Santa Cruz pier for our ritual ice cream cone and watching of the sea lions.