Half Moon Bay

 This girl loves the beach and so we finally made it to the coast for a treat for the Birthday girl.

 We decided to head to Half Moon Bay. It is only about a 2 hour drive from our house.

 The water was freezing but it didn't stop the kids from quickly jumping into the waves.

 We set up our little beach tent and settled in with our shovels and snacks for a relaxing day listening to the waves.

 We spent a good amount of time just looking out at the bay. It was quite a show the sea animals put on for us. There were lots of whales in the bay that would spout and then we would see their backs come up out of the water.

 Sometimes we would even see their big jaws come up out of the water and shut scattering the many seagulls and pelicans that seemed to be swarming around. Pelicans were fun to watch too. They would fly by flapping away and then suddenly the flapping would stop and they would hover for a moment then dive down into the water after a fish or something that looked edible.

There were also lots of seals or sea lions (it is hard to tell when you only see their heads) swimming very close to the shore. At one point the kids were only a few feet away from a seal while they played in the waves.

While the kids were playing in the waves we saw two dorsal fins in the wave just cresting behind them and got a little scared. Dorsal fins made us think of sharks. We yelled to the kids to come up the beach but quickly saw that they weren't sharks but dolphins. They jumped up out of the water and did a little flip for us as if we were at marine world or something. We of course didn't get any pictures but I did catch a moment of video of them as they were further down the beach. They kept jumping clear out of the waves all along the shore.

 The kids were prepared for lots of sand play.

 We haven't purchased actual sand buckets and tools for years but the kids grabbed our big shovels, gardening shovels and lots of large yogurt containers to bring with them. They planned on digging and building!

 I buried a few kids in the sand.

 While Henry and Sophie started the castle.....or Kingdom they started calling it because it was more of a whole city with lots of towers.

 Now Molly is dumping on Henry to bury him in the sand.

 There was some seaweed play as well.

 It was too cold for us. We stayed bundled up most of the time and didn't venture into the waves. But it was a glorious day at the beach for just relaxing.

 I think we stayed for about 5 hours and while Sophie and Ian were pretty much done by then. Henry and Molly could have stayed even longer.

But our Happy 7 year old had a birthday wish fulfilled. 

 We stopped at a great seafood restaurant for dinner and Molly got a little cake to celebrate.

We decided to take a different route home and drove north up through San Francisco and then across the Golden Gate Bridge. It actually didn't add much if any extra time to the trip home. 

The kids didn't seem to mind how long the trip home was they were enjoying watching The Princess Bride as we drove home. 

What a Great little Vacation trip!