Dan Blocker Beach

There were no plans for today. Which was fine; after all, what's the point of renting a beachfront condo if you aren't going to enjoy it? The condo is built on a small point, with a beach to the south and a separate beach to the north.

The beach to the south, as seen from the lower level porch, is not easily accessible to the residents of our building. However, it appears it is intended to be the private beach of the next condos down.

Strictly speaking, there are no truly "private" beaches; but there are many so difficult to access from the road that there may as well be.

The temperatures had been running from low 60s to low 70s; and, this moring, Jenny was cold enough that she sent John downstairs for some firewood. Dominic, of course, was fascinated.

So I made my way down the steps to the beach.

The level of the building that looks to be field stones, is, in fact, a huge foundation. The lowest navigable level contains the garage, a sauna, and a huge porch. The level above that contains our condo and one other, as does the upper level. However, during our time there, only one other condo was rented at a time.

After the kids' nap, we invaded "our" beach. This beach was named after Dan Blocker, the beloved actor from the sixties' TV series, Bonanza. This beach is accessible from the road; but in the week I was there I only twice saw people on the beach that weren't us.

Jenny had brought enough beach toys to keep the kids busy for days. Plus, beach.

Gianna is now 3 and loves to play with people, but of course at that age by "playing" one means "following orders". Such as, "I'll be a captain and you be a pirate. That rock is your pirate ship." Then, in deeper voice, " Ahoy there! What are you up to?"

The surf was constant, awesome, and wonderful.

We were joined by my oldest grandson, Zach, recently turned 19 so now an adult.

Even my husband, Keith, was inspired to join the sun worshippers.

Gianna had decided before Keith and I arrived, that she didn't like "beach sand" which was, she explained, much different from sandbox sand or even Key West sand. So the only way her mother could get her down here, was by convincing her that socks would protect her.

Dominic, on the other hand, had no such compunctions, and happily walked off with Uncle John to explore more of the beach.

By now Zach had located a sea kayak and decided to give it a trial.

By now the sun was lowering and temperature, which had never been very high, began to drop; so we brought the little ones back to the house.

Then John got out his drone (!) and sent it off to take more pics of Zach on his kayak voyage.

When Zach got back, the boys continued to play with the drone. Hey, Julia Roberts probably lives near here. Right?

Dominic wasn't allowed to go near the drone or controller, but he was very interested, nonetheless.

Meanwhile the clouds were again beginning to build up as the evening fog prepared to roll in.

After dark, with the boys setting up their expensive digital cameras and tripods to do night photography experiments, I just snapped a couple of shots with my Galaxy S9+ cellphone.

I even managed to get a handheld time exposure which, while blurry, is recognizable.