There are never enough Beach days... I live 6 miles from the Pacific Ocean where the water is currently 70-74 degrees. Yet, we still only make it to the beach every other week.

Why??

Well, I have two kids.. 4-years-old and 20-months-old. When I was single, I was in the water every day where the water was actually cold. Now, I feel like a slug for my laziness.

Perhaps it's not laziness. Being a Stay-at-home Dad can be draining but that's not what I came to write about.

Today we went to Tamarak Beach.. ok.. not Tamarak proper.. but a bit south.. in front of the big chimney. What a great beach. The chimney seems to keep crowds down. I guess tourists don't know that what is behind you at the beach is.. well.. behind you.

My 4-year-old plopped down in the sand and started to build. The sand stuck to him like .. well.. sand. He was freshly lubed up with SPF-50 which is like industrial strength epoxy for sand.

My 20-month.. aka.. my girl.. sheesh .. in the old days we could use our kids' names without worry of internet predators.. anyway, my girl waited patiently for me to put on her wetsuit.. yes.. she has a wetsuit.. it's her second one.. she outgrew the first... after donning the suit she was off to the surf zone; which, for a toddler, is in like 4 inches of water.

This beach has a negligable slope. Perfect for kids. The only concern would be the rip current the sets up by the jetty. The kids didn't need to know about it. No sense in scaring them over some event that wasn't gonna happen .. (no.. I'm not forshadowing.. nothing happend.. just letting people know to pay attention).

After a while we pulled out the boogie board. My girl flopped on and was ready to be pulled around. We skimmed in the inch-deep water whipping through the turns. Then, she rolled off.

"Oh $#!+," I thought. "Now, she's gonna be afraid of the water." I knelt down to pull her up. The smile on her face was huge. "Wipeout" she said... Ok.. it sounded more like "Waaapaaw" But a parent understands their kid. She was stoked. Though, she did show a bit more caution for a couple of minutes.

Now my boy wanted his turn (he's the 4-year-old).. Great.. Now the kids were whinning. Can't we all just get along. No.. I'm 42 and I don't really like to share.. why should they like it. Luckily, today was a good day and turns worked.

To save you the bore of our drip castles, wave-hopping, rock finding and our GORP lunch... I'll get back to my point: There are never enough Beach days.