So today we had the choice of driving up the street to the public beach access near our house, or making the long 12 mile trek down to Bodie Lighthouse public beach access. Last year when we went to that beach after visiting the lighthouse it was secluded with very few people and there were tons of seashells. Plus the waves there were very calm and the water never got too deep eve(I'm guessing the post title *might* have given it away) we took the long drive to the beach across from Bodie. You might think we would have been better prepared and visited Bodie Lighthouse since it was just across the street, but you would be wrong. I'm not sure I could have gotten any pictures of the lighthouse that were better than the ones I took last year anyway. In fact, as I look back at the shots from last year in general I can't help but thinking most of my pictures from last year were better. I guess I'm getting worse at photography as I go along.
With the storm off the coast and warning about undercurrents and riptides being stronger than normal we decided the Bodie beach with it's shallow water was probably the better bet. Sadly our $13 umbrella from Wal-Mart acted very much like a $13 umbrella, but was still infinitely better than no umbrella at all. I'm thinking the umbrellas we had previously were larger than six feet.
Initially Ginger had said Quinn couldn't even bring his boogie board because she was worried about it being too rough, so once we got there Quinn decided he would try and use the boogie board like one of those sand surf boards that are all the rage down here. I told him I thought that was a recipe for disaster, but he wouldn't listen. The reason he's shirtless in the later shots is because a wave came through and pulled the board out form under him just like I told him it would and he got more than a little drenched. Oddly enough it didn't stop him from immediately going back out and trying the same thing again (with similar results).
The beach itself was more crowded than it had been when we were there last year, but still not that crowded. And even with the storm off the coast and riptide and undercurrent warnings in effect the waves weren't that bad. In fact after I walked out a ways and tested out the waters I was comfortable enough to let Quinn somewhat solo out in the water about twenty feet out (solo in this case means I'm not holding him, but still present) since with the waves the water would only fluctuate between my knees and mid thigh. I figured in the worst case scenario he would only have to stand up if he got into trouble. He really seemed to enjoy it.
Catherine was really happy with the shells. Unlike up in Duck where there are so many people there are never any good shells the shells down here are just about everywhere. We were there just after high tide, so the shell selection wasn't the greatest, but it still beat anything we had seen previously in the week hands down.
We eventually finished off the day after getting home with another trip to the water park. My earlier opinion that the kids would quickly grow bored with this is proving incorrect at this point since now they would rather go to the water park than go to the beach.
The water slide continues to be a big attraction. Quinn likes it a bit more than Catherine, but she's always entertaining when she comes down.
Quinn had this bright idea today since he's not allowed to go down face first that instead he would lie on his stomach and go down backwards. This eventually got Catherine following suit. Even though both kids ended up getting minor injuries from this method they persisted in doing it.
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