Three years ago today: Carpenteria Beach

Zen meditation on Carpenteria Beach

Three years ago today we went to the beach in Carpenteria, Calif.! The beach is north of Ventura along Hwy. 1 on the way to Santa Barbara.

The temperature was a perfect 71 degrees with clear, sunny skies and a gentle breeze off the Pacific Ocean. You had fun frolicking around in the sand, and I'm certain you enjoyed the weather, as the High Desert where we lived was a little cool.

We didn't spend much time on the beach, as we were on our way to Solvang for the day. On the way back, we stopped off in Ojai!

Here are some photos from our time at the beach!

Remember Ventura beach playground?

Four years ago today we went to the beach in Ventura!

We spent much of the time enjoying the playground, which had ocean-themed play equipment. For example, the slide looked like a waterfall, and an obstacle course had nets like what fishermen would use.

The stop at the beach was just part of our day in Ventura. We also went to the Scottish festival at the county fairgrounds!

Here's a whole bunch of pictures from our adventure at the beach playground!

Our many Pacific Ocean adventures

June 20, 2011, Moonlight Beach,
in Encinitas, Calif.

Do you remember all of the times we went to the ocean? We went quite a number of times to the beach in Ventura and Encinitas and once to the beach in Carpenteria. We'd also do the boardwalk in Long Beach, and when you were an infant, you went to beaches in and around Crescent City.

You always liked to let the tide rush in at you and see if you could evade it by running away. Sometimes you were successful! Because you couldn't yet swim, I always had to make sure I held your hands so you wouldn't get knocked down and float away on me.

We also went to different aquariums that had fish, mammals and other animals that lived in the ocean. The Aquarium of the Pacific on Long Beach by far was your favorite. We also went once to the Birch Aquarium in San Diego and a couple of times to Sea World in San Diego.

Here's some pictures from a couple of those ocean adventures!

Recall going to the beach in Ventura?

One year ago today we went to one of your favorite places - the beach in Ventura!

Your sand toys were packed away in a storage shed, so we went to the Target in Ventura and picked up some new ones. There was the standard bucket and a couple of shovels but also a plastic truck and airplane.

Then we stopped off at the Busy Bee Cafe to enjoy a fun lunch of burgers and fries. It's a 1950s-styled diner in downtown Ventura that has been around since 1963, which was the height of the surf craze in Southern California.

From there, it was off to the beach! We played in the sand, on the playground, and even stepped into the ocean water just a little bit. It was a beautiful day with temps in the mid-70s! It was a beautfiul day because I got to spend it with you!

Here's a whole bunch of photos from our day at the beach.

Recall Scottish festival in Ventura?

Two years ago today we attended the Seaside Highland Games - a celebration of all things Scottish - in Ventura, Calif. Since you're Scottish (on your mother's side), I thought it'd be a fun festival for you to attend and learn about your heritage!

The photo at right shows you standing by your family emblem. You're a descendant of the Clan MacDonell of Glengarry (a branch of Clan Donald).

The big thing that you really enjoyed at the festival was the parade of bagpipe players! I lifted you up onto my shoulders so you could see the whole thing! You also liked watching the border collies herd the sheep in some of the demonstrations of old Scottish arts being held.

There was a fun little playground as well. One of them included a ramp that would slant in different directions depending on where you stood on it.

Here's a bunch of photos of us at the festival!

Your sand toys through the years

As I promote my new book, which contains a poem set at Ventura Pier, I began to think of all of our great visits to that beach and the sand toys you had. You're always in my thoughts, it seems, no matter what I'm doing.

Your first sand toys weren't meant for the beach at all but for the big sand pits at the local playgrounds. The Santa Clarita park near where we lived when you were a year old had a great sand pit to play in around a huge castle-like play equipment. most of the other other parks had good sand pits, too, though of varying quality.

We mostly took our sand toys to the beach, though - lots of shovels, buckets, and a few plastic trucks that we could build roads for. There also was this great colorful toy that you could dump sand into and it would go through a funnel turning a wheel below it.

The picture on this page shows you in March 2012 at Ventura city beach with the Ventura Pier in the background. These were the last sand toys I purchased for you. I had forgot to bring our sand toys because I'd been moving stuff to our new condo, so we stopped at Target and picked up these!

Do you remember going to the beach?

Ventura city beach, Feb. 2012

One of your favorite places to go when you were little was to the beach. There were a couple of ocean beaches in particular that we uusally went to - the Ventura city beach next to the pier in Ventura, Calif., and Moonlight Beach in Encinitas, Calif.

We spent a lot of time building sand castles - which you then always liked to knock down in some large imaginary battle! You'd usually help me build a couple of turrets, play with the sand toy vehicles for a bit (Sometimes you'd bury the vehicles in the sand and ask me to find them!), and then ask me when I'd be done with the castle so that you could knock it down! Sometimes you;d let me bury you in the sand, too.

Next we'd head down to the water, where we'd play chase and avoid the waves. You loved to get wet and splash in the water. Sometimes I think you were pretending it was a great monster trying to capture you.

Both beaches also had playgrounds, and we'd usually spend a little time there to warm up after going into the cold water. If we were lucky, there usually was an open food stand nearby so that we could enjoy a snack!

I'm afraid the water bodies here in the Midwest aren't quite as exciting as the Pacific Ocean, but there are some neat beaches on the St. Croix River that I can't wait to take you to.