Day Four: The Beach!

We planned our arrival in L.A. to avoid rush hour, but I wasn't prepared for the gusty winds on highway ten as we came through the mountains on the western edge of the desert. Fortunately, we made all the turns we needed to make to get to the Garden Grove house of my first friend: Jennifer Richardson, whom I met at age three, when our dads were in graduate school at the University of Texas. After our visit, Jennifer posted several photos of us taken over the years, which I have downloaded and will put in a separate post dedicated to them on this blog.

Jennifer lives close to Huntington Beach (Surf City!), so soon after we arrived, we picked up veggie hotdogs, marshmallows, and other cookout provisions and headed for the coast.

Nina was a little bit excited to get to the water.


So were the boys.

We had been assured that the water was too cold for swimming, and there was also a rip tide advisory. But after the kids got their feet wet and showed no signs of freezing, we knew from experience that even a wading restriction would soon produce a full body soaking, so we told them to change into their suits.

Pablo, sensibly, was the first to find creative beach play alternatives to the Blue Foot Challenge.

Nina and Emilio played the game depicted below for a long time. It basically involves standing still while enduring an attack from successive waves of cold. I call it the "Tiananmen Hero" game.

Sam and Morgan drove more than an hour across L.A. to meet us at Bolsa Chica State Park as soon as we contacted them.
Morgan was the first to volunteer to help bury Pablo in the sand.

Jennifer brought beach paddles that Emilio and I played with for a while before I retired and handed my paddle off to Nina.

Jennifer brought multiple fold-up chairs, and we were soon joined by a cast of friends from Jen's cohort group in a Master's in Fine Arts (Acting) program at California State University at Long Beach. After working together for two years, they were all graduating on Friday of that week.
It came as a surprise to exactly no one that these actors who know each other well and want to be a teachers were a fun bunch.
Pablo is serious about roasting marshmallows, though he isn't a particular fan of eating them.

One of the highlights of the trip for Pablo must have been the enthusiastically received fireside stand-up comic set he did comprised entirely of favorite bits from the collected works of Jim Gaffigan.

A chilly Morgan consented to wrap himself in the bedspread we brought with us.

While Pablo collected giggles, Emilio and Jen's partner Pam wrote their names in the paddle board record books.

Nina was the last one in the water.