live list: go to the beach

So, guess what blog?  We are moving in less than three weeks.  Mum, Dad, Cee and me.  Hey, that rhymes.

Cee decided to go to the beach with a friend (it was their farewell weekend), and I went as well.

It was not exactly the sort of beach trip I meant in my live list, for one reason.

It was freezing.  Like, fuh-reeeeeezing. I had on a pullover and a Columbia jacket and I still had to go sit in the car after a bit.

I don't care if people sleep outside in Iowa when it's fifteen below - if you're a born and bred California kid, anything near 60 is arctic. 

However, as I declared I would not do in my list, I did not lug a ton of junk. 

The way, for instance, our neighbors did:

Mum and I brought two chairs, two water bottles, and four magazines.  And that was it. 

The main problem with going to the beach in California (besides that fact that it's usually cold) is that if you live in, say, El Cajon, you have to drive forty minutes to get anywhere. Not to mention parking. Because of this, people feel they have to spend the whole day at the beach when they bother to go.  So you drag coolers and towels and clean clothes and snacks and shovels and boogie boards and skim boards and wetsuits and hats and sunscreen and sweatshirts and books and, if you're really serious about your beach time, a tent or awning.  

In Croatia, we walked for five minutes, took a book and a towel, swam for half an hour, and went home.

Okay, rant over. 

Yet, even though it was cold (did I tell you that the weather was frigid?) and a little sprinkly, it was still restful.  Just nice. And the coldness sort of suited my mood.  Also, I might have been sorrier to leave California if my last beach trip was on an unusually gorgeous day.  Because, honestly? Cold is the norm.

(P.S. I don't usually wear tennis shoes to the beach.  I'm not that hopeless.)

(P.P.S.  I am also a tiny bit grateful that California beaches are freezing.  According to my geography teacher, the cold current keeps hurricanes away from us.  Why wasn't I told this ten years ago?  I would have shrieked a lot less when trying to get into the water.)