Limantour in January

I think it's just about the best thing to do around New Years, going to the beach at Limantour and letting that clear, clean sea air blow away all the cares of the past year. Today it was just a small bunch of us - Carson, Reed, Geoff & I. (I realized too late that instead of asking sleepy teens if they wanted to GO, I should have asked if they wanted to DRIVE THERE!) Reed didn't want to go, and Carson protested a little, but they both had a fabulous day, told me how great it was, and insisted we go back soon.


Not only is it one of the most beautiful places I know, but the sand dunes are great for jumping off of, or hiding in the tall, spiky dune grass. Carson and I walked down the spit towards the end of the day, and found where the dunes start to separate into individual hills, and you can see the estuary on the other side, and the sand is blown into fantastical patterns. We made a date to go (soon) and walk all the way to the end (or as far as you can these days, since the point has been colonized by seals.) I took Will and Satchel when they were 8 or 9, and have been meaning to take Carson. I really enjoyed walking with him today, talking, pointing out amazing or cool things we saw, sometimes just being silly.


I hadn't been out there in a year, since I went out alone last winter to think and write and remember my dad, and grieve. It was good to go again. I had my dad's binoculars today, and spent some time sitting as he used to do, watching the black sea birds wink in and out of view on the waves, as the waves dipped and the birds dove. I had a bird book, but I only looked up a few birds - mostly I'm happy just to watch them without needing to know the name. (Besides, have you ever tried to identify a gull? Hah!) I don't know of another beach that gives one the same sense of being completely in, of, and surrounded by ocean as Limantour does.

A photo of Will at Limantour from last year...

Tomorrow my brother leaves for India (nope, no jealousy here, not me, uh-uhh, I don't wish I was heading off to somewhere fabulous and exotic too!), and soon enough my little winter vacation here ends and it's back to the salt mines... work, kids, school, work, cook, kids, laundry... I'm in a state of denial at the moment...

Still - Bryan & Cindy may have India, but WE have Limantour...