Malibu Creek State Park

Although Malibu kind of faces the ocean with the Santa Monica Mountains its back, that doesn't mean that ocean and beach activities are all it has to offer. Malibu Creek State Park, for example, offers hiking, horseback riding, fishing, picnicing, and more. So I lobbied hard for an afternoon there.

First, however, was this morning's excitement: the passing of four helicopters by our beach.

Dominic does little gymnastics things at every opportunity.

But finally we were set for a hiking visit to Malibu Creek State Park. John had already had to return home, so it was "just" Jenny, Dominic, Gianna and Zach; and Keith and myself.

Zach and Dominic, practicing their indifferent model looks.

Gianna at 3½ is starting to get an independent streak…as long as we're in line-of-sight.

Malibu Creek starts small, but other tributaries join it on its way to the sea.

The trails were largely well-maintained, with just a few spots like this one that took a little more effort to navigate.

We stopped briefly to let Dominic check out the creek.

Gianna, however, is at that age where many things are "yucky", including, it seems, the creek. She wanted to touch it, but didn't want to touch it at the same time.

Dominic had no such compunctions.

Then it was time to continue on our way.

Gianna spotted a lizard.

Much of that land that is now Malibu State Park was donated by various movie studios that, for years, did location shooting here, such as How Green Was My Valley and even The Towering Inferno (the lot here was where they built the model skyscraper).

Not much trace of that now, as the studios do seem to be very good at cleaning up after a production.

We came upon this picnic spot and decided to take a break/photo shoot.

On our way back to the car Dominic spotted a resting tractor, so of course he had to check it out.