Fun With No Sun

According to the calendar, summer is over. According to most beach city residents, summer never began, or maybe began late.

As a South Bay resident I couldn't help but feel a little cheated this year. Don't we pay a premium to live here partially due to the great beach weather?

A bunch of our friends decided to plan a beach day before fall kicks into high gear. With the weather being fickle lately, we were not exactly sure what we would wake up to. We have witnessed Mother Nature at her finest in recent weeks.

June gloom has been here for most of the summer so I wasn't surprised when I looked outside. The kids didn't care what the weather was going to be; they were going to the beach, so we stayed the course and packed our gear.

We were the first family to arrive at the beach, and although we are not fair weather beach goers, I began to wonder if the other families would show up. Our fears were put to rest when we saw another family arrive, then another, then another.

I got comfy in my beach chair and watched the kids dig a hole in the sand for their "pool." They worked and worked with very little progress. Eventually, they employed one of the dads to chip in and help get the job done.

Once the hole was wide and deep enough for their liking, buckets of water were filled. As the water was poured into the hole and disappeared, so did the hope of sitting in a "pool." Recovering quickly as kids often do, the hole was then used to jump in and out of.

The waves were small but harsh as the tide was low causing the waves to break on the sand. A lone surfer paddled out into what I call "board breaking surf." He stayed out for about an hour, but didn't catch anything. Some days are like that, and just getting in the water can be somewhat satisfying.

Much further out in the water there was a lone stand-up paddleboarder cruising along the surface of the water. Not long after I spotted this stand-up paddleboarder, I noticed this lucky person had company in the form of a pod of dolphins. I could only imagine how exciting this was.

As I sat in my chair watching the wonderful layers of this day overlap, I was reminded that it's not the weather that keeps me rooted in the South Bay; it's the unplanned beauty in days like this. And it didn't hurt when the sun finally made an appearance.