Yesterday we had a rare Saturday with nothing going on here at the McClellan house. We had the whole morning to ourselves and since it’s been starting to get warm here in San Diego we decided to have our first trip of the summer to the beach.
Jillian and I have both lived in San Diego our entire lives, but we have differing views on the beach. We both grew up with very fond memories of our trips to the beach as kids. Jillian remembers doing beach days with the families of the childcare that she grew up in and I have amazing memories of going to the beach with my family to body surf and play bocce ball.
As we have gotten older, Jillian has been able to retain her fondness for the shoreline; while I have not. When I think of the beach now I think of the traffic, the limited parking, the crowds and the unwanted sand in unwanted places. But we live in San Diego and we pay that sunshine tax so we want Brooks to grow up with memories of the beach like we have, so off we went.
We went early in the morning, based on my proven to be correct assumption that many other people would be heading to the beach as well. When we got there we were able to get one of the few remaining parking spots on the jetty and we made our way down the sand. We set up shop for the morning by laying out a blanket, putting on our and getting out the sand toys for Brooks. I tried to take Brooks down to the water, but he wanted nothing to do with it and after putting my feet in neither did I. The weather may have been warm, but the water was not.
Brooks was completely content just playing in the sand though as long as Jillian was willing to brave the waves to collect water to make mud. We hung out for a few hours, my cousin stopped by to visit, Brooks and I explored some sand mounds and we leisurely enjoyed our impromptu family morning at the beach.
We came home to shower off the sand and inspect our respective sunburns. We had applied and reapplied sunscreen to no avail. We each had some burns on our legs, but nothing too bad for the length of time we had been there. We were all a bit tired as the sun had not only physically left it’s mark but had also sucked the energy right out of us. Overall it was a great first trip to the beach for the summer and we have already talked about going back again soon. Next time it will be even earlier in the morning to avoid the crowds and hopefully we can encourage Brooks to venture into the water, but only if it warms up a bit.
San Diego summers are for sand castles and sun burns at the beach and my hope is that by going with Brooks I will be able to reignite those memories from my childhood and think less about the logistics of the venture and just enjoy the adventure.
DividuusOne 