baby's first trip to the beach!

The first day of our long memorial day weekend, we packed up supplies (which took ~2hours! including ~half an hour to slather the baby with sunscreen), and hitched the baby burley trailer up to the bike and headed off to the beach (which took ~15 minutes)

Alameda has an actual state beach (which we stayed away from on this first sunny day of summer on a holiday weekend), and a long strip of bay-fronting sandy beach.

I have to admit, growing up in SoCal, with Malibu the closest beach, I didn't think much of San Francisco's beaches, let alone Alameda's which isn't even on the ocean. But Alameda's beach is perfect for kids! The waves are really mild, the sand is clean, and there are functional bathrooms spaced out along the street. And did I mention the 15 minute bike ride to get there?!

Natasha took right to it! She loves the sandbox and enjoys her baths, so what's not to love about the worlds biggest sandbox that's right near a water park?!

We sat her down near the water's edge to let her play in the wet sand (her favorite!) and get used to the water. As the waves came up she wasn't even phased and mostly just kept playing with the seaweed.

And then Daddy brought her out a bit further to show her how the waves worked. She wasn't scared at all, and kept pointing to the birds and kite surfers flying by.

A day at the beach isn't complete without a snack, so Daddy held an umbrella over Natasha to give her a little break from the sun. We have to get some sort of shade we can strap to the bike trailer, because that little umbrella kept collapsing in the wind.

After fueling up and getting a fresh coat of sunscreen, it was off to play in the sand and build sand castles!

Well, it was time for Daddy to build sand castles and Natasha to crush them! :D

I think we're going to be spending a lot of time at the beach this summer.. and for the next several years.