A day at the beach

There are some perks to living in the central valley of California. The days it hits above 105 are not part of the perks. While I love the heat, once it surpasses 105, it gets to be a bit much. Thankfully we get a few weeks a year of this kind of weather. The year it was 110+ for 2 weeks was a bit out of control.

The good thing about living where we live are the boundless options! This week alone I have been above 7000' in the redwood trees near Mamoth Lakes and I have been to the ocean, both within a two hours drive. I dont know which I prefer more. Yesterday we took a day trip to the beach. We hit the aquarium, Bubba Gumps, which has awesome food and spent several hours at the beach. It was literally 40 degrees cooler at the coast. I realized that drastically when we got home got out of the car in wearing my light sweatshirt and thought I was going to die.

My son could live on the beach. He just spends hours digging like a dog, running into the ocean, screaming, splashing and behaving with wild abandon. He even made a friend! This fella was just 10 feet off shore and really took an interest in Dylan. Probably wondering what this wild animal on shore was all about. Whats wrong with that crazy human? We all wonder it from time to time. I have no answers for you mister sea lion.

One of the perks

One of the little perks I have had my entire life are the lakes at our ranch. These lakes are full of life and bring beauty to the ranch and a watering hole to the cows.

In addition to serving a purpose as watering holes, they are our fishing holes. I remember back when my husband and I started dating. He took me fishing to a local lake one day and we spent the entire day out there fishing and caught one fish. He was so thrilled about catching one fish and I was impatient and curious why on earth he would be excited about catching ONE fish?!

You see all of my life, I have been able to fish in our lakes on the ranch where the lakes at alive with bass, blue gill and crappie. I took my boyfriend to the ranch with us one day and dropped him off at a lake while we gathered cattle. When I came back a few hours later he was smiling ear to ear having caught dozens of fish, not to mention the monster of the lake, a 10 pound large mouth bass. He proposed the next day (not really, but I think he thought about it). Most all of the fishing done at the ranch is catch and release, we fish for the fun of fishing.

The best perk of the lakes at the ranch though is sharing it with the kids. Not just my kids, who have developed a love of fishing, but all of our friends and families kiddos. Typically they catch their first fish at our ranch. The little ones fish off the shore and catch a prized blue gill or crappie all by themselves!

It is definitely one of the little things I appreciate most in my life. I love sharing this ranch and its lakes with our friends and family. We spend Easter every year there and the kids spend the day fishing and climbing rocks and hunting for dormant snakes (not really, not on purpose anyhow).