A Wonderful Day at the Beach The kids loved playing in the sand. Since it is winter and cold to the locals, there was not a shovel, pail, or beach fun kit to be found at the local stores. I had to get creative and ended up buying a packet of kitchen utensils and several tupperware containers so we could build castles.

Blake LOVED the beach. I knew he would since he has always been the outdoors type. The weather was a warm 86 that day, but I can't even tell you how cold the water was. I put my toes in it once and they went numb. To Blake, it didn't make a bit of difference. He enjoyed it and never once mentioned that he was cold. He got out as far as his belly before I'd tell him he was out too far and to head back. On our way home we wanted to stop and get something to eat but he said he needed to go back to the hotel. I asked, "how come" and McKenzie announced, "Mom, he's got beach in his butt." Sure enough, it did look like half the beach had found its way into the little guy's swimming trunks. :)

John talked to some of his agents who live in the area and also to his sister who vacations there every year to see which was the best beach to go to if we wanted to find live stuff. And boy did we find it! There were tide pools galore at 1,000 Steps Beach. The kids had so much fun exploring the shore looking for sea creatures. Dad helped them find two different kinds of crabs, the rocks were covered with thousands of mussels, and there were tons of anemones. You could no way get me to touch one, but the kids loved finding them open and waving in the water because they could tickle them with their fingers and they would close up on them and then they looked like a donut with their fingers stuck in the middle.

Even though we have a lot of fun chasing the sea gulls at our local parks all summer long, the boys still thought it was fun to chase them away from attacking mom while she sat peacefully on the shore watching the whales and schools of dolphins pass by. Yes, you read it correctly. We saw 3-4 whales blowing water spouts, and lifting their massive tails out of the water. The dolphins would come in groups of 4-5, all showing their top fins at different moments as they passed by about 3/4 of a mile off shore.
Seth played it safer. He could not figure out why we kept making our castles so close to the ocean that the waves would eventually wash them away. He made his little castles up closer to mom and dad and asked Blake to go fill his containers with the icy water. He's no dummy...

McKenzie leaving her mark in the sand carved out with the top half of a dead mussel shell.McKenzie's face says it all. (And maybe that isn't even descriptive enough.) Okay, so there really aren't 1,000 steps to get down to or up from this fun, little known beach. But on the way up I thought I'd count to see. 222 is the final number. 222 leg burning, lungs on fire, out of breath steps! :) The boys ran to the top without even getting winded, Kenz made it over half way before she turned around to see where we were, and I was just lucky to make it up alive before sundown. Luckily though, I was not sore at all the next day like John and Kenzie were. She complained of sore calf muscles for the next couple of days. 222 or 1,000 either way it was sooooooo worth it. It was a wonderful day at the beach.