Playing hookey

That's what the rest of Sunday felt like. We packed up the car, dog and all, and headed off to the beach. The goal was to go up to San Onofre, where there's a part of the beach that allows dogs (and can I just say, as an aside, that one of the biggest disappointments about moving to Southern California was the utter lack of dog beaches? The closest one to me is in Del Mar -- about 20 miles south -- and it's only about 100 yards of beach, not somewhere that you can actually go for a walk while your dog happily plays. Up north, dog beaches weren't much closer, but they were worth driving for). It's the same part of the beach that allows naked people (I live in a strange world, which is part of its charm), but live and let live, I always say.

However, when we hit the freeway, it was clear that there was no way we were going to make it that far north. The drive is usually about 45 minutes, at freeway speed; we were going less than half that, and there was no sign that the traffic was abating. It was just as bad on the other side, so apparently everyone at Point A was heading for Point B just as fast as the Point Bers were driving to Point A. We got off the road and turned around. But our lunches were packed, and I wanted salt water, so we decided to take a shot on a small stretch of beach that we'd heard about where a blind eye is mostly turned to the presence of dogs (I'm not going to say where, lest I call the attention of less blind eyes), and I'm so glad we did. It was absolutely beautiful, and sandy, unlike the beach at San Onofre, which is mostly big round cobbly rocks.

It was a lovely overcast day, and we explored and wandered.
You can see why this beach is little-patrolled; it's mostly covered in water, even when the tide is going out.
The girls played their favorite game of gathering up very wet sand
and carrying it onto the beach to make dribble castles.
We saw a Bob's Big Boy.
(Do you think he's confused there in that yard?)

I admired the line between sea and sky.
And I got to drive home barefoot with sand between my toes.
I think everyone was glad in the end that the traffic was so bad.