Memorial Day - Manresa Style

We spent Memorial Day at Manresa Beach, which is tucked away from all the weekend Barneys, 15 minutes south of Capitola down Highway 1. You won’t find a cleaner beach, and if you get there before noon on most days, parking is a short walk to the sand.

Sonya has mastered the Manresa experience. We’re out the door no later than 9:00 a.m., and sprawled out the sand by 9:45. We play in the sun for a few hours then high tail it back home before 3:00 p.m. Not a spec of traffic on either leg.


Ry Ry, Chick Magnet
Watching all the fools heading into Santa Cruz at 3:00 p.m. on a holiday is almost as entertaining as the beach itself. We saw bumper-to-bumper traffic from Highway 1 all the way to the summit in Highway 17. For those familiar with that route, we’re probably talking 15 miles of road.

Karsyn loves the beach, and as it turns out her little brother seems to be taking a liking to it as well. Karsyn’s routine consists of:

1) finding some new kid to play with
2) finding some random adult to explain all things beach related to
3) building sand castles
4) hunting for sand crabs
5) boogie boarding
6) hunting for more sand castles
7) throwing a tantrum when we tell her it’s time to go home


Shredder Girl
It was low tide when we got there, so the sand crab hunting was exceptional. There were mongo sized crabs all over the place. You didn’t even to dig. Just wait for a wave to come in and watch them go skittering across the sand as the wave rustled them up from their hiding place.

Ryan experience REALLY cold water for the first time in his life, and his initial reaction was what you might expect for a 1 year old who’s swallowed up by a 50 degree sea of water for the first time. Well, it wasn’t exactly a sea of water, but rather a puddle-filler that wrapped around his ankles. You would have thought it was a tidal wave by his reaction.

I’m guessing it was the temperature, because after I would swing his feet into each oncoming wave (think 8 inch swells here folks), he figured out that playing in the water is actually sorta fun. He’s not ready to take on 8 foot waves on a boogie board like his sister, but he figured out the whole wave thing.


Huntin' for Sand Crabs
My lone mistake of the day was allowing my five year old daughter to apply sunscreen on my back. Let’s just say that full coverage was not part of the equation. I have a nice burn down my left shoulder that looks roughly like New Jersey (as if anything could look softly like New Jersey).

Sonya got to try out her new wetsuit, so we now have two surfer girls in the family. She and Karsyn boarded for a good hour, while I Ryan and I checked out all the bikinis on the beach ;) All in all, a great way to kickoff summer.