A Tale of Two Beaches Part II: Stinson Beach

Exactly a month later on Mark’s and my fifth wedding anniversary, we hit the beach again this time to the north instead of south. Before leaving the house I actually got Julia to wear a dress! It involved receiving a bribe of a Cookie Monster cookie after she put it on and another in the car if she kept it on. (The first time I tried cookies as a bribe she immediately wanted the dress off as soon as she received the cookie so I’ve learned from that mistake.)

First stop was Park Chow in San Francisco’s Inner Sunset. James and Julia were excited to (slowly) walk up the stairs to the heat-lamped covered balcony, creating a line of traffic behind them. A woman sitting nearby with an interest in twins was charmed by ours and gave us four free Oakland
Zoo passes (score!).

 
Mommy walks with James and Julia in San Francisco’s Inner Sunset.


Waiting for a table at Park Chow


James puts on a Halloween mask. Oh wait, that’s his actual face.


James pulls Julia out of his hat.


“Seriously, Mom, don’t you have enough pictures already?”

Then we snaked along the Marin County coast to Stinson Beach, and James and Julia napped on the way just like I planned. It was a chillier beach and some people were in long sleeves - you could definitely tell we were north of San Francisco! The twins, particularly James, enjoyed viewing a game of beach volleyball having just watched that on TV during the Olympics. They liked playing in the sand, and James discovered the joys of hiding his feet under it. The twins and I were particularly struck by how cold the sand was in the shade on the walk back to the car.


We arrive at Stinson Beach.


Daddy gets comfortable.




Not only did I get Julia in a dress I somehow managed to get her in pigtails too, which got sloppier and more uneven throughout the day. However, I dared not touch them for fear she’d remember they were there and want me to take them out.


James sets up a shell game to con other toddlers.




Julia and James try to catch Daddy.


James suddenly wants a hug.


And then after the hug break more trying to catch Daddy.


Mommy’s going to get James.




“I’m going to get Julia!”


“Gotcha!”


Heading home


Mommy, James, and Julia stand in the cool sand.

Then for dinner we stayed on San Francisco’s west side again and ate at Mandalay, a Burmese restaurant in the Inner Richmond, for the first time. With James wearing his red hat and Elmo overalls, one of the patrons tells him he looks like Super Mario. The twins loved the tea leaf salad and broken samusa soup.


James and his other twin, Super Mario


James eats Mommy’s food at Mandalay.

The Stinson Beach jaunt was a longer drive than expected and it resulted in us arriving home 1 ½ hours later than they usually go to bed. Unlike our return from Santa Cruz where a roused-from-sleep James had a major meltdown upon arrival, this time they were still out when we carried them in. It was the first time we’d ever brought them in when they were overtired and they just wanted to be put in bed.


Asleep in the car holding Doggy and Bunny