President's Day fun

Last week on Prez Day we went to the beach in the morning and had a grand ole time. Dad has been getting some of the MFA students together every Friday to go out painting landscapes, and since there were no classes on Monday for presidential reasons, he got some people together to head out in the morning. Mom decided to come with as it had been a looong time since she had gone painting too. We took Natalie with us since we would be on the beach and she could just play in the sand. The morning loomed cool and gray, and many people chickened out because they thought it was too cold (60 degrees! hah!), but there were a few brave souls who came with us. We went to our favorite beach, just north of main beach in Laguna and set up. It turned out to be a great day. The sun eventually came out and warmed the cockles of our hearts. Mom did get some painting as the picture shows, even after Natalie threw sand on Mom and her painting. Oops! After we finished we walked down the beach to look at the tide pools, now showing due to the receding tide. We found many a starfish (previously undiscovered by the Parker clan) and even heard someone mention seeing an octopus there. We never found the octopus but found lots of fish, crabs, the aforementioned starfish, and lots of shells. We stayed out for an extra couple of hours until we were really hungry and headed back home. It was good to get out together and do something we haven't done in a long time, and now with numero dois coming, we may not be able to do again for a long time.