Irish Beach

The beach house we rented was on Navarro Way half way between Gualala and Mendocino on the Northern California Coast. As part of our stay we had access to a private beach. Irish Beach.There were beautiful formations made from drift wood all over the beach, little enclosures like the one above, the wood was white and wind smooth.On one visit to the beach Joel and the Grannies discovered a group building elaborate sand castles. The beach was beautiful, but you can see by the hats and jackets, it was cold and windy too.I loved all of the drift wood and it was fun too look at the different statues that were created, It was almost like art work, and it was fun to guess which formations were man made, and which were ones formed by the ocean washing up on the shore.I think Holly likes the wind almost as much as she likes the water. She would turn into the wind and it would sweep back her hair.She loved exploring the sand and the formations too, she wanted to investigate each rock, and sea weed and run the sand through her fingers. It was cold, but she didn't mind a bit.Here Holly is asking for More, more wind, more sand, more playing, she is having such a great time. This was her first trip to a real beach on the actual pacific. Before this, she only played in the beach in Alameda, which is technically the bay.Here is granny playing with Holly, we remembered to bring her sand toys. She likes to run her fingers through the sand and scoop it up and put it into the bucket, then take the shovel and mix the sand around.When the bucket is sufficiently full, she has been known to dump it out on herself. Usually on her lap, sometimes down her shirt. On this particular day we got lucky!You can tell here by the way the sea weed is tossed across the wood that the ocean placed it there, it is so pretty. Holly was so curious about everything, we just had to make sure not too much got put into her mouth.I love the little rock out in the water, depending on the tide you can walk out to it or not. The sky is so grey and full of fog, the beach is just what we expected, salty, wet, cold, windy, and full of fog. Unfortunately I think the grannies were hoping for a Florida bright, sunny and warm.I suppose it might have been nice to slather on the sun screen and jump into the water, but I think Holly had just about as much fun. Mommy even took off her shoes and walked into the ripple. The water was freezing.Holly enjoyed climbing, and playing with the wood. She was good about not trying to eat that. I think she wanted to build something just like others had before her, but ultimately the pieces were too big for her to collect and she moved on to stones.Its so cool how little pieces jet up towards the sky, there was a lot for her to soak in at a very new and alien land scape. The smells, the sounds, and the sites.This was another little structure that was being built, maybe one day it would be a full fledged cabin. it had a doorway and four walls. Holly thought it was neat to go into the room and walk around it and explore the walls.When Holly first arrived she walked down towards the beach with Granny, due to the cold we left her shoes on, so it took a little bit for her to get her footing in the sand with shoes.

Click the link to see some video:

Irish Beach - Sand Toys Here Holly is getting her footing while walking in the sand with her sand toys at Irish Beach.

Walking With Granny Here Holly is walking in the sand with Granny at Irish Beach trying to find a nice place to dig.


But before long she was carrying her bucket and collecting rocks. Some of these she did taste, as they were salty, but I would tell her yucky and she put the rock back into the bucket.I think she wanted to run down to the water and collect it. But it was still far away and in the sand she was slow moving. Eventually I brought her down to the water when I stepped in, but on this trip she didn't get wet.On her way to the water there were also lots of distractions, a bird in the distance, a piece of wood, a shiny stone. Later I let her bury my toes in the sand and she had fun with that.She would stop every few moments, check something out, dig a little, collect some sand, and move on. Yet still she did inch closer and closer to the water ever so slowly.She is so proud of herself, and so happy. I think she could have spent the entire day here at the beach just playing in the sand.I think Mommy might have also been able to spend the entire day there too, I love the sound of the crashing waves, and sitting with the wind on my skin watching Holly run and play, she had miles of beach to run on and explore, it was an amazing afternoon.