Swamis Beach

Sunday night, the kids and I drove to Temecula/Murrieta to visit our friends, the Beyer family. The kids spent the entire evening playing, laughing, riding bikes and having a blast with their friends Gavin and Hayden, whom they don't get to see so often since they moved away last year. Rose and I of course spent hours and hours chatting and catching up on life. It was very nice.

Monday they took us to this little beach they found in Encinitas. It's a little surf haven that is almost exclusively frequented by locals, which means it doesn't get as busy as many of the other beaches in Southern California. My expectations were high, as Rose had described it as magical. And you know what? She just might have been right.

We spent four glorious hours on the beach with picture perfect weather and the kids tried boogie boarding, which they immediately fell in love with. I seriously don't think they spent more than a total of 20 minutes out of the water the entire time we were there and that was because the four kids had to take turns sharing the 3 boogie boards Rose had brought.

This magical beach had a few drawbacks. It is located on a bluff and you did have to descend approximately 170 stairs to get down to it. Going down wasn't so bad but coming back up? Well let's just say it's been 3 days and my calves are still sore (man am I out of shape!).

View from the top of the bluff:

And on the beach with the bluff in the background:

The other drawback is that while it was only 45 minutes away from Rose's house to get there, the drive all the way home for us took almost 3 hours. Needless to say, the kids and I were exhausted.

Exhausted, but totally worth it.