A day at the beach

Northern California beaches are notoriously cold, but not last Friday, when temperatures even close to the coast topped 100.

Seemed like a good day for the beach! The sand was so hot I had to run across it to get to the water. Ow! Ow! Ow! But the water was bracing.
Lots of people there for a weekday, but most of them were congregated right around the parking area and lifeguard stands. Walk a little bit and it's much more pleasant.

Some days there's a lot of stuff washed up by the waves: driftwood, seaweed, little crabs, sand dollars. This day, there wasn't much.

Some clumps of seaweed don't look all that interesting. (Though the bull kelp featured in the last What Is It? certainly was.)

If you look at it up close, though, it has a fascinating structure.
The Sergeant said, "Watch out for the jellyfish!" And I was all, what jellyfish? He pointed out the next one he saw.
Oh! I thought those were bubbles!

As soon as I started taking picture of it, this little girl came running over with her dad and he picked it up and was being all lecture-y about it with her. Gee, thanks for asking me if I was done taking pictures. But I guess it gives you an idea of the size.
It really was a nice place to spend a hot day, and so much different from yet oddly similar to my beloved Wisconsin beach.