When Visitors Come, Part 3: Long Beach

When my mother-in-law comes to visit she comes with an agenda, which is generally fun and fast paced.  This time it involved heading to the coast for a little sun, sand and Sunday market.  Let's start with the sand part.

Long Beach, the world's longest beach, spans the length of the Long Beach Peninsula.  And if you manage to visit on a sunny, not too windy day, it is loads of fun.  Of course the girls think it is fun no matter the weather--so long as sand gets between the toes, among other place, they are happy campers.

It was just our luck that some sort of sand castle building extravaganza was taking place the day we arrived.

Not only was a parking lot converted into a sandy wonderland, but a huge stretch of the beach was decked with sandy castles and sea monsters, chest pieces and. . . actually I am not sure what else the long stretch of beach contained.

The girls had no desire to go find out, so we parked ourselves between the chest pieces in danger of being beaten by the surf and the sea monster that was no match for the tide.

The only sand sculpture these six girls cared about was their own.

But even it held little appeal when the waves came rolling in, tempting them to dip their toes in. . .

and their hands in.

The only moment of uncertainly was experienced by me when the seagulls began circling overhead.

I have been pooped on by not one, not two, but three seagulls in my lifetime.  All on the head, I might add.

 I snapped pictures of them with a sense of tempting fate, knowing that if I became their target, instead of the other way around, at least I would have something to show for it.

The girls weren't that concerned, though.

They were too busy playing and collecting treasures.

After an hour of playing chicken with the surf, we headed back to our cozy little beach cottage, tired and sandy, bellies full of ice cream, to dream about adventure to come.