A Perfect Day for the Beach!

How better to celebrate the last day of winter than to spend it at the beach? The kids didn’t have school last Friday because of “Staff Development Day,” whatever the heck that means! Maybe the teachers were tired and needed a break from our kids?! Anyway, the weather was the warmest it has been all winter—seventy-eight degrees when we left home—a wonderful way for Old Man Winter to say goodbye! We celebrated by taking a road trip along California Highway 1, following along the Pacific Coast from Half Moon Bay to Watsonville, and stopping at beaches along the way. Since the coast is just one continuous beach, you might think all the beaches would look alike, but they don’t. Each beach is unique in its own way. Here is a sampling of our day (click to enlarge photos.)

First stop was beautiful Half Moon Bay, which is 25 miles south of San Francisco. The above photo was taken there. The kids loved it here, and were disappointed that we weren't staying the day.

We couldn't believe how close the surfers were to the sandy beach. Seemed like you may end up sharing your beach chair with one of them if they weren't careful!




The side of the highway was speckled with beautiful wildflowers.




The next beach we stopped at was San Gregorio. This beach had a river winding through it as well as interesting cliff formations and caves. The kids loved exploring this eclectic beach.

The kids were getting a bit sad at this point, I think they would have preferred to go to just one beach and spend the day in a sun-sand bliss. But not today, off to our next short stop at Pomponio Beach (below).

After that quick stop, we jumped in the car and continued heading south. We couldn't stop at every beach; there just wasn't time left in the day. We were very pleased with the treasure we found at our next stop: Pescadero Beach (below). Nope, those aren't a bunch of rocks sitting on top of a larger rock, they're harbor seals. They were as curious of us, as we were of them.

There was some confusion as to what the next beach was called, so I will let you look at the sign a decide yourself! And no, this is not the infamous Pebble Beach by Carmel. This beach was rocky and parts of it seemed to be made of an unusual bubbly-looking sandstone. The waves were huge here, as they dashed upon the rocks.

The next stop was to view Pigeon Point Lighthouse, 20 miles south of where we started at Half Moon Bay. This is one of the tallest lighthouses in America and has been guiding mariners since 1872.

Ahhh, there were more places we would love to have stopped before we called it a day, but we had a mutiny on our hands—the kids were starving for dinner. So, no more photos of the beaches—our last stop was at Santa Cruz Boardwalk for dinner.

Thanks for sharing our day with us! I can't say which beach was my favorite, they were all so magical. What a perfect day :-) !