Alameda Beach

We recently discovered the awesome little beach in Alameda. Its along the shoreline Highway, and you park near the post office, and cross over and into the beach.The water is warm the sand not too hot, the waves calm, the breeze light, it was the perfect beach day, fun in the sun and the sand.Holly really enjoyed walking along the water line as the waves slowly lapped up she would run back and forth not sure if she should run in or run away. She giggled the whole time.I love this little bathing suit. The other babies were crying and fussing with the sun screen all over them and it would be sticky, so they would get sand all over them, but with this top, I didn't have to worry about it.The water was pretty clean, which mommy liked, not too much sea weed, though the little that there was made Holly very curious.She really enjoyed playing in the sand too. The wet sand was something new. It was a great sensory experience for her.We were meeting several friends at the beach and they already had the blanket and snacks all set up when we arrived. We ended up getting there pretty late, as we arrived after Holly's nap.We ended up inviting Isabel and Sarah to join us too and they arrived just before our other friends were leaving.Here is our little area. Kasaundra and Magnus set up the play date and have been coming to this beach for the past few weeks. Sandrine and Satine were new to our group and it was our first time meeting them.We brought all of Holly's sand toys with us and she enjoyed playing in the sand running with her bucket, and filling it with water.She would dump the water out in the sand up near our blanket and dig and explore in the sand. She is still learning how to use a shovel, but she enjoys filling the bucket with her hands.When Isabel and Sarah arrived Sarah was lathered in sun screen and then she swiftly crawled down to the water in chase of Holly.Holly hadn't sat in the water yet, but Sarah loved it. So my next course of action was to see if she would sit and splash too.Thing is, Sarah wanted to stand and walk around more the Holly wanted to sit. The water was really refreshing, but neither Isabel or I were in our bathing suits so we couldn't enjoy it with the girls.Eventually Holly sat down and started to splash with Sarah. They were eating some apples and having a snack.It was great that the water wasn't too deep and they were able to control their environment by crawling or walking in or out of the water.As the afternoon turned to early evening the wind picked up and the tide came in. The waves lapped and the water was deeper. Holly loved it.Eventually the water made it up to where we were playing in the sand and we almost lost her bucket in the waves. She enjoyed playing with the wet sand and we ran to move our blanket and supplies further up the beach.I thought this was a beautiful shot of the sky and the water and a cool wind surfer. The beach wasn't too busy on this day and the ocean was wide open.Later it was like batman walking down the beach towards us. The girls loved it, it was like a super hero, they were so intrigued and wanted to follow him away.It was tough to get them clean and dry and out of the water and get all of the sand off of them, I would clean up one hand and the next would be dirty.But before long I had Holly dry and changed and she was happy to eat a snack and enjoy the wind. We wouldn't have left except the wind was making the air too cold for wet babies.It was a beautiful Northern California day at the beach. I love my little beach bum surfer girl.