Being by the Sea

I am not brave. Let me start off with that. I wish I were. Brave in the spur of the moment kind of way. It's out of my comfort zone. To dive, head first, into the great unknown. But, sometimes, life presents itself in such a way that even I can throw caution to the wind.

Ruby LOVES the ocean. A lot. She prefers it over most any other destination. Disneyland included. So, when I was doing some research for our upcoming October trip to the Happiest Place on Earth, I decided to type a beach destination into the search engine.  And we ended up with a very spontaneous, last minute trip to San Simeon Lodge by the Sea.

 I grew up taking road trips with my family. The memories are so vivid and the times we shared are something I look back on with such fondness.  I want to let her experience these rites of passage as I once did.  Baby steps, right? 

We ended up staying in the cutest motel along the freeway, overlooking the ocean.  It felt safe, which is huge for this mama.  It was also close (walking distance) to the shore line where we spent a lot of our time searching for sea glass and shells. 

On the second day after we arrived, we took a drive up the coast line and ended up in a tourist-y souvenir shop.  It was full of over priced toys and t-shirts.  In one corner of the store however was a treasure chest holding brown paper sacks.  They were each sealed and labeled for a girl or boy and ranged from $1.50 up $3.00. The catch?  These treasures were grab bags and you had no clue what you were getting.  And the sign clearly stated, NO REFUNDS!

Oh how my girl weighed and measured and finally decided on the best choice of brown paper sack.  (Did you know there is something so very exciting about the unknown treasure?) She busted that bag open as soon as I'd laid down the $1.50 and was so happy to find a little plastic sea turtle she immediately called George. 

For the next few days, George went everywhere we did. He searched for shells, rode inside the sand bucket and had a shot gun view as we drove along our merry way.  He was a good sport really.  I loved that my 10 year old really connected with this little guy.  She is on the brink of  growing past that magical age of pretending. 

I took at least a hundred pictures, and looking at them now, I see this little girl, growing into this amazing young lady. Her sense of humor and timing had me laughing and realizing how much she *gets* this world around her.  She's so brave and smart and I find myself wanting to be like her.  I stood back and watched her interact with people. She did the talking, and I the observing.  She made friends and studied sea life under a microscope with a Marine Biology student. They talked about plankton and crustaceans. She helped rescue a star fish and offered her sand bucket full of water to carry him to safety. 

As we were sitting under the pier looking through the washed up pebbles, I wondered what her memory would be when she is older. Would she remember the sand in her toes, the smell of the ocean or the time we spent painstakingly looking for bits of glass that seemed to just appear out of nowhere. 


For now, I was happy to ride shot gun along with George, into this great adventure:)