Pfeiffer beach lived up to our expectations.....and even spilled over to be better than expected!
Over and over, God delights me. I thought it was far enough South to hopefully escape the "cloudy and cool" Northern California beach weather. Turns out that it wasn't far enough South, BUT, today, the sun was out, which the park ranger commented was very unusual! My tired and exhausted body and mind were so thankful for the little treasures that God keeps giving to keep me going!
The purple sand wasn't evident. It looked pretty brown to me. However, when we explored a bit, what looked like some rocks turned out to be light purple sand! I did take a picture, but even in the picture it looks like a rock. When you come visit (and you all are welcome) we can direct you, or take you there and you can see this purple sand in person!
It was wonderful to get to the beach. We staked out our spot, put some towels down and started organizing our stuff. The kids asked if they could run down a sandy hill. Sure. Why not? Kids having fun with the sand is a great beach activity! This one looked super fun. Doesn't this look great?!
Let them run and burn off their energy while we get set up. We put our towels down and I sat. The kids had been going up and down the hill and suddenly they were only going up. I mean, up into the mountain! FOR GOODNESS SAKE! Is it not possible for us to just sit and relax? Literally, I had JUST sat down!
See them going UP?
I don't know whose idea it was, but 2 children made wise choices. John (our "street smart" boy), THANKFULLY said that it was not good for him to go up. It was too tricky. Maybe his heart wasn't as obedient as we want it to be, but God gave him the ability to know when it's smart to say NO. We were SO THANKFUL that John didn't join in this escapade! Our good girl, Megan, REALLY wanted to go, but she was havering. She stood on the crest between the sand slope and the mountain and wasn't sure what to do. We were yelling for them to STOP, but the roar of the ocean drowned out our desperate cries. Both Paul and I went charging up the sand and on to the mountain, and I was able to get far enough up for Megan to decide to go back down. My sister stayed with Megan and John and took pictures, while Paul and I charged up the mountain. By sheer luck, I got to the top first, and we took up stations. Paul stayed near the top of the sand dune part while I charged further up.
It was STEEP. The other picture doesn't do it justice. Look at this.
The view from further up was amazing! That is Paul in the black shirt with his hands on his hips. As I sent people back down, I gave them a "talking to" about ASKING before they do something. Apparently Paul did the same thing as they came through "his station"!
In case you think we were overreacting, look how steep this is!
It was almost a drop off at some points (although TOTALLY BEAUTIFUL, which I'm sure was completely lost on the kids)!
We got all 3 back down safely, although I had a few moments where I prayed HARD and had visions of sending out the park rangers. It turns out that the path up the mountain split at one point and all 3 were totally out of sight. I yelled and yelled, but they couldn't hear me. I pictured staying out there all night, waiting for the rangers to find the children, even though I knew my imagination was going wild. Just when I started up one of the paths, Andrew appeared totally unconcerned and having a great time exploring and climbing. I was SO RELIEVED that I gave him a HUGE hug (carefully, so we didn't both fall to our deaths) and asked about the others. He was NOT very re-assuring when he said that he didn't know where they were!
Fortunately Kathryn showed up just then, and after another minute, David showed up. WHEW!
Here they are, starting back down the path. Did I mention that it was STEEP?
Paul got stuck on the way down. Kathryn picked one way down, and I followed her, but Paul picked another. It was somewhat re-assuring that Kathryn took the "better" path. She was at a cross roads, looked at it and said, "this way will be better". I agreed with her and also didn't want to let her out of my sight. Paul took the other way and ended up here.
Oh well. It all came out all right in the end. We all talked with the kids about RESPECTFULLY ASKING PERMISSION before doing things like this in the future, and then we had did have a great afternoon.
Pfeiffer beach really was wonderful. Look at these rocks!
We allowed the kids to climb on them (and Paul was sitting on one of them).
The beach was so nice that someone got married on it!
It had this nice little stream.
And this fun pool of water.
It was truly beautiful!
It was a GORGEOUS day. Look at the blue sky! Actually, that is common in Northern California. I can't believe how blue the sky is here!
John actually feel asleep like this BEFORE we got to the beach, but it gave him energy to run up and down that hill! (I guess the mirrors and laser spy thing wore him out.)
Andrew had SUCH a great time that he chose this day from our whole summer to talk about when he gives his "speech" in 1st grade!
Pfeiffer beach - totally beautiful and totally worth the drive. We had another great day.
No comments:
Post a Comment