Crystal Cove State Park and Beach

We went to a new beach this week! It's just a little further north than the one we've been to before and takes the same amount of time to get there with most of the same roads. We started in the Los Trancos parking lot which was nice and big and only $15 for the whole day which might seem a lot, but it's so nice not to have to scramble for a parking space in popular places and it had restrooms, maps and signs right to the beach! 

The tunnel underneath the road was decorated with sea themed murals by local schools

We started off by walking along the top of cliffs on the crystal cove trail. The vegetation was quite dry, being the end of summer, but we could see the state park on the left with the morning mist hitting the tops of the mountains and the sea stetched out to the right. 

A misty start to the day

We reached the end of the trail and took the route down to the beach. It wasn't too busy this far away from the parking lot and we settled down for a picnic and to read our books for a while. After a rest and a little paddle, we walked back along the beach, stopping to watch the sea birds and look into some tide pools. The tide was a little high to be able to see any critters in the pools, but we didn't much mind. 

A lot of these plover fellows though

When we got back to the main part of the beach we headed into what's called the Historic District, which is a few old style wooden beach cottages built on the sand which you can rent and a few businesses including the shake shack! We got a milkshake each and some chips (fries) to share and sat and enjoyed them with a beautiful view of the sea below. 

About 9000% of my daily recommended sugar intake

After refuelling ourselves, we walked back to the sand and laid on the beach until the sun started to go down and it got a little cooler. Compared to the 40c it was in Riverside that day the beach was a very pleasant 24c with a breeze coming off of the sea. It had been misty when we arrived, but by midday the sun had burned through giving us the perfect weather for a perfect beach day. 

And a perfect beach partner (because he carries the snacks)

On Wednesday we went visit our friends from Switzerland who live in a (much fancier) apartment complex not to far away to play some tennis. It was a lot of fun as they're about as good as us so we made up our own rules and just focused on hitting the ball back and forth (no matter how times it had bounced!). 

On Monday I went for a swim in the pool which I haven't done for a while. The kids here have already gone back to school (as of mid August!) so I had it to myself and enjoyed a few laps in the afternoon sun. It really does wonders for cooling you down for the rest of the day.

The gym onsite has also opened up in the last few weeks as the covid restrictions relax so I've been spending some time in there on the days when I'm not in the gardens which is great for giving me a way to keep moving when it's too hot for a walk!

Also in news this week, we went to visit the Riverside annual car and chilli cook off. An odd combination, but there were a huge amount of old and interesting cars lined up on one end of the closed off road and vendors selling food on the other. 

We got a snow cone, some vegan brownies and a plate of nachos to share and spent the afternoon having a look at some of the more unusual cars on display. It was a pretty hot day (38c!), but we enjoyed it! 


Love to you all

Emily and Mitchell

xxx

Mist + heat = interesting things to my hair


Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

England and Wales

After we arrived back in England, we managed to see a lot of friends and family over Christmas, but not everyone. So once the festivities were over, we went on a little tour to visit some more people we hadn't seen in a few years.  Right after Christmas, we headed to the North by visiting Mitchell's mum for a few days. We took some lovely walks through the countryside and along the beach. One day we walked from Sutton on Sea to Chapel St Leonards to visit the North Sea Observatory. We walked through fields and followed the coastline all the way down.  We also went to Donna Nook and saw some seals! On New Year's Day, Mitchell and his mum went for a dip in the ocean! Another day we did the Top of the Wolds trail, which was about 5 miles. We started in the little village of South Elkington, and about half way we stopped for lunch in Louth. At one point we could see all the way across the fields and back to Louth's church.  We also did a day trip to Lincoln to see the stree...
Read more

New Zealand

Image
 After Singapore, our next destination was New Zealand! This was something I'd been looking forward to, as it promised to be a mountain lover's dream.  We spent the first three days in Christchurch, exploring the city and catching up on sleep after our long flights. Our first full day, we walked around the city and running some errands. We had to print off our taxes so we went to the public library which was very fancy and had a rooftop garden.  We then had to post our taxes, so we went in search of a post office. We found a booth in a chemist and sent them off, so we don't have to worry about them any more for this year. Errands complete, we grabbed some lunch in a little shopping centre and then continued on exploring the city. There isn't a lot to see in the city centre itself, but we did find a very busy market food hall which we earmarked for dinner. We did get some milkshakes and take them down to the river to drink. There was a nice river walk which bordered the ...
Read more

Japan pt 1: Tokyo and Kyoto

We arrived later than expected into Japan as our first flight was delayed and we missed our connection. So we grabbed some food in the Shanghai airport while we waited for our new flight, but it wasn't long until we were touching down in Tokyo! On day one we went to a little cafe for breakfast that did veggie plates and rice balls, and then it was into the city to explore. We went to Akihabra, or electric town, which has tons of tech, video game and anime stores. We bought some fun headphones and a crepe and looked around some of the shops.  We also went to visit a bunny cafe! On day two, we went to the Shibuya scramble, one of the busiest crossings in the world. It was mainly busy with tourists taking photos, but all the light up billboards around the place were pretty iconic. We also went to visit the Hachiko statue of the most loyal dog who waited for his owner outside the station for nine years.  We then went to the Pokemon centre to look at all the Pokemon and other Ninte...
Read more