Jalama Beach

Drive 20 minutes or so down a narrow, winding highway, and you will find yourself at Jalama Beach. It is not your typical California beach—laden with sun bathers and umbrellas. Instead, it offers a small respite, relatively isolated and steeped in rugged solitude.

The skies were grey when we arrived, but the weather was not altogether unpleasant. Clark was napping in the car, so my aunt opted to stay behind and watch him while the rest of us headed out to dip our toes in the cold waters of the Pacific Ocean.

The beach itself is long and quiet—soundless almost—except for the rush of waves and the cry of gulls. While we were there, a handful of surfers filled the water and a line of fishermen stood on the shore, casting their reels.

Eventually, Clark woke up from his nap and we were able to bring him down to the seashore. He had never seen the ocean before, and the water itself was a bit overwhelming. He wanted to look, but he wasn’t very interested in letting it touch him.

The sand, however, he would have played in all day. We wandered the beach for a while, searching for pretty, ocean smoothed stones, and digging our fingers through the sand.