Simple Joys: Family Time At The Beach

My husband grew up in a bayshore town.  So, during our visit to Nana and Granddad's house this past week we had to make a trip to the town beach and then to a nearby ocean beach as well.  W has been very excited about going to the beach since I gave him the Gerda Muller Summer book last week.  This photo only added to his excitement, though I had to prepare him that the beaches we were visiting would not have cows.


The town beach on the bayshore was a real treasure trove.  The waves in the bay are much more gentle than the ocean waves and W felt comfortable getting closer to the water there.  Also a creek flows into the bay at these beaches providing some comparatively still water for W to play in as well.  Oh how he loved it!

Looking inland at the creek bed.

A boy exploring the beach.

Of course a boy has to find a stick!

Throwing rocks and shells pieces into the water was a favorite beach activity.

W loved playing with rocks and shells in the calm creek water.

We found that the bayshore beach was teaming with shells, rocks, beach glass, drift wood, birds and sea creatures.  It was the perfect place for a nature walk.

I'd love to share a few of our favorite finds with you.

A Tiny crab that had washed up on the beach.

Driftwood

This horseshoe crab proved to be very interesting.  

We found it on it's back like this and flipped it over.

We found that it's back had quite a few snail shells attached to it.

It was still alive so Daddy put it further down on the beach and 

we eventually were able to watch it start to swim back into the water.

  

We thought a whole large clam shell was a pretty good find!

The beaches on the bayshore were much better for shell collecting than the ocean beaches.

Duck footprints in the sand. 

Birds on the Bayshore.

Later that day we made a trip to the ocean beach.  We found relatively few shells there, but I was able to find some beautiful shell fragments, rocks and some beautiful pieces of beach glass there  all of which had been worn down and had edges softened by the waves.  I loved how much more powerful those ocean waves seem as compared to those on the bay.  I found as I walked along the beach I would stop, and look at the ever changing nature of the beach.  As the waves would come in around my feet, and then go back out, they would scatter the bits of rocks and shells on the beach into new patterns.  

I loved looking at this piece of seaweed with the ocean foam still clinging to it.

W was more nervous about those strong ocean waves and preferred to stay further up on the beach, though he did ask me to take him down to wade in the water just as we were leaving.

W would occasionally come up close to the water 

and then joyfully run back as the waves came towards him.

Note the little sand soul patch he is sporting here!

He loved walking around the beach with his shovel and bucket.  

He filled the bucket with sand and rocks and shells 

which he would then dump out and ask me 

to get him some water from the ocean.  

He took the ocean water up to the dry sand and would spill it all out.  

We did this over and over and over again!

Unfortunately, our beach day was a bit on the chilly side, so there were no bathing suits and Daddy would not even take his shoes off to stick a big toe in the water 

(which was warmer than the air).

 In the car on the way home, W told us that the beach was "great fun"!