And now, the final installment of our California adventures! Â Friday may have been my favorite day – all beach, all sun, ALL DAY. Â The restorative power of Vitamin D is real, people!
We tossed our beach towels and sand toys into the car first thing in the morning, stopped at Rose Cafe for coffee and avocado toast, and headed toward Malibu.
This area was new to us and well worth the 30-minute drive – the rugged shores of El Matador State Beach were a fun contrast to the wide-open sand-for-miles beaches of Santa Monica.
I hadn’t even finished spreading out our towels before Juliette had her toes in the water.
Ahhh, the return of the Giants hat! Â A welcome change from the knitted purple beanie Juliette’s been donning for months!
Shane, with his eagle eyes, spotted some kind of creature doing circles way off-shore.
Is that a shark fin in the distance?!
Juliette recently checked out We’re Going On A Bear Hunt from the library and was desperately hoping to find a great big bear in this cave, but alas…
Just a papa bear.
She zig-zagged all over that beach, returning to Shane and I every few minutes to pull us out the water’s edge or to look at a sea anemone she’d discovered tucked into a big rock.
“Mama, come! Â COME!”
The bestest of buddies…
Her body says she’s tuckered out, but her eyes say otherwise…
I know, I know, STOP with the Juliette pictures! Â Gah, though! Â The faces on this girl.
Photo cred for this one of Shane goes to Juliette, who’s become alarmingly adept with the iPhone camera.
After our adventurous morning, we were happy to spend the rest of the afternoon just chilling out at the house. Â Juliette did some rock art on the patio…
And Shane popped open a bottle of bubbly.
We picked up a hefty watermelon on our first day in town and Juliette gobbled her way through most of it. Â Gosh, it’s been too long since I’ve seen this girl’s shoulders, seen fruit juice dribble down her chin.
We started feeling the magnetic pull of the beach around 5:00. Â Resistance is futile.
Juliette was very into her version of beach volleyball during our time at the house, so her mind was blown when she saw the real thing in action.
And then, in an instant, she looked over at the water and was off like a dart.
I think I have enough photos for a full-wall series titled, “Dad and Girl at Ocean’s Edge”.
Happy Schnells:
Photo cred (and composition) for this one also goes to Juliette. Â The kid’s got an eye, I think:
This last sunset made my heart hurt just a little – I could have used a few more days of this…
Our flight back to Seattle on Saturday wasn’t until mid-afternoon, so we had time in the morning to soak up a few last rays. Â Juliette and I took a walk around the neighborhood in search of our dream bungalow. Â We found about seventeen of them.
THESE SIDEWALKS!
We popped into the grocery store for a Kombucha and a very expensive (but very delicious) green smoothie.
With T minus four hours to flight time, we packed our bags and said good-bye our sweet little home away from home. Â Juliette whined as we climbed into the car, “But I want to stay here forever!”
Thankfully, I had just the thing up my sleeve to cheer her up:
It was particularly warm that day, so I figured we’d check out the splash pad at Alondra Park to cool off and get the pre-flight wiggles out. Â Juliette was timid at first, not wanting to expose herself to more than a few drops of water. Â To be fair, she’s a little out of practice in the art of spray-parking.
Soon, though, she got the hang of it.
This photo makes me wish for the onset of summer in Seattle with the desperation of a thousand suns…
Eventually, we had to say our all-too-soon farewell to California and board our plane. Â Kudos to Shane for pulling Juliette out of her post-vacation melancholy with an exuberant game of thumb wrestling. Â This left me free to wail, “But I don’t wannnnna leave!”
Adios, Cali. Â You were just what we needed, with your passion fruit donuts and 80-degree days. Â We’ll catch you next Spring.
