Tuesday, November 14, 2006

Beachcombers (Part One)

Ian, Max, Speck and I just got back from vacation with Ian's family. We went to Crystal Cove, which is in Laguna Beach, and is such a cool spot that I almost don't want to tell anyone about it, lest it become overrun. There are a bunch of quirky little cabins, which were once residences but have been reclaimed by the state (the land is part of Crystal Cove State Park) and are being restored and rented out for vacations. Only a few of the cabins have been restored so far, so there were not very many people there, and it was amazingly beautiful.

As predicted, our trip yielded many cute Max and cousin Joey moments, some of which we managed to capture on film. It was the first time that the cousins have spent more than one day in a row together, and it was interesting to watch them get increasingly acclimated to each other. They actually get along really well, and had very few disputes. Each baby was very interested in what the other baby was doing, playing with, being fed, etc. Joey, who is learning to walk with admirable determination but questionable balance, used Max to steady himself on a couple of occasions, which led to some baby dominoes, since Max is not exactly a pillar of stability, either.

Joey lives near the beach, and is familiar with the sandy delights it offers, but Max had never seen the ocean before. He found the noise of the waves a bit overwhelming at times, but he loved watching the people and crawling around on the sand.

Joey took time away from eating/coating himself in sand to go on a couple of small scouting expeditions. He found, among other things, a clump of delightfully slimy seaweed.

He generously offered to share his find with Max.

Max declined the offer, and the seaweed was ultimately abandoned in favor of more sand eating.

While not interested in touching seaweed, Max did find some items of interest to entertain himself with. Here he is doing his interpretation of Gandalf as a baby.

He buried and unburied this rock for awhile, but when it proved too heavy to carry with him, he lost interest in it and tried a bite of the sand that Joey kept saying was so delicious. Max tried a couple of bites, but he decided that the sand did not quite live up to the hype.

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

glad you guys enjoyed it

I'm proud of my father for a lot of things but that particular project is pretty special. We sat and talked about it at length and there is some good history at that spot.

I need to go see them, I've always been interested in my dad's projects but I've never seen those up close.

Chelsa said...

They're really amazing. There'll be more pictures coming of the one we stayed in, but we walked around and looked at all of them. They are such neat old buildings. I am glad someone is working to preserve them.

Raging Wombat said...

This proves my point - Gandalf did eat sand as a baby.

Chelsa said...

You guys really need to stop watching that stuff. Seriously. I wouldn't know that Kristen chick if I did see her, but mostly we saw a bunch of middle-aged beach walkers. Alyson, I thought that this blog post would surely elicit a bitter remark from you about how some people get to hang out on the beach in their shorts in November, while others have to cry in their long johns in Edmonton.

Chelsa said...

Fair enough. I have to admit, I've watched a few things that I would be afraid to admit in print.