Moss Beach Bummies

Today had to be my favorite beach day so far this summer.
After a quick check of the tidechart, the kids and I jumped into the car and headed down the peninsula for Moss Beach. This is quickly becoming my favorite beach if not place in the bay area. The rocky reef is the only one of it's kind on this area of coastline, and at low tide, it holds off the rugged waves while revealing a whole world of creatures and little windows under the water. The water is cool and clear, the sand is beautiful and clean, made up of tiny smooth fragments of colored rock and shell. Seals roost at one end of the beach, and human mommies and kids roost at the other. The kids played with a bunch of other kids, splashing, digging, exploring. Zoe didn't let her fears keep her out of the water this time, but instead she kept a foot in the pools, and an eye on the horizon- just like her mommy taught her to do. Cautiously running out of the water to higher ground when the rising tide brought a larger ripple over the reef. Julian poked at seaweed with the boys and they both played a game of wading, then screaming as they ran for higher ground. We found a large crab hiding in a length of kelp, and returned it to a large pool where we could watch it skitter back to the deep.
As soon as I took Julian's trunks off, he dove into the sand, face down, giggling.

Once dry and clothed, we headed back up to the parking lot. I saw a little trail leading to the forested bluff and I presumed, an overlook. I wanted a better view of the seals, so we hiked up the trail. It lead to a great overlook where we could see the whole clan of seals and further down the coast to the next few white sandy beaches backed by other forested cliffs. We walked along the dirt path, and smelled the warm air steeped with conifers mixing with the seaspray. And I told Zoe and Julian how lucky I was to be able to take them to the beach on a Wednesday afternoon, and that I could not have been happier.