Beach Trip

We took a trip to the beach today. The weather was a nice 70 degrees and sunny, so Amy suggested we have a picnic at the beach. On our way down, we grabbed some lunch at Chick-fil-a (man! I love that place), and took it with us as we headed to Oxnard Beach Park.

Fortunately, that park's parking lot was packed, so we headed down the road a bit and came to another beach (Oxnard Beach, I think) where the parking was great and free! There was hardly any crowd on the beach, but enough people present so we didn't feel like we were alone. Looking up the beach to the North, toward Oxnard Beach Park, I could see that the beach was absolutely jam packed, so I'm really glad that we didn't end up there.

Instead, we had a wonderful time. After eating our lunch, Joshua and then Joseph wanted to go dip their feet in the ocean water. That was actually a bit of a surprise. Our boys have always been daunted by the ocean, and hesitant to get wet, but they were really into it this time.

The water was still icy, but after a few minutes my legs had become sufficiently numb that I couldn't tell the difference any more. They weren't sufficiently numb not to feel the gravelly sea bed, though. Still it was quite enjoyable out in the ocean water.

The boys had an absolute blast. We could hardly tear them away from the water. They didn't get that far into it, of course (none of them can swim), but they went far enough that an occasional swell could splash up onto them. They skipped stones, ran in mock fear from the incoming waves, screamed, yelled, and kicked water at each other; we drew the line when Josh grabbed handfuls of wet sand to start throwing at his brothers.

I'm most surprised by Ben, who had an absolute blast. Originally, he was going to wear pants, and was apathetic at the notion of getting wet, but when the time came to head inland and dry up, he was the last to go, and really bummed about leaving, too. They're all looking forward to going back, and I'm sure we will. I'm hoping to hit several beaches along the coast in Ventura County and Santa Barbara County, so we can get a feel for which ones are good. Oxnard Beach (not Oxnard Beach Park) is on the good list.