No, this is not a post about springing Gwen Stefani’s kid from an unfair incarceration.  This is about the beach.

I have lived within a short driving distance of the beach most of my life, except for a 4-year landlocked period in South Bend, Indiana.  One might think that going to the beach for a day is no big deal to me, but one would be very, very wrong.  Because I love the experience of spending hours at the shore so much, I build it up in my mind so that my expectations are so high that anything less than a perfect excursion disappoints me greatly.  Not enough ice in the cooler?  Run out of snacks too soon?  Sand in all the wrong crevices?  Too windy/chilly/hot/smelly/noisy/crowded…etc?  Any one of those can spell Beach Day FAIL*.

Sandy snacks, pre-meltdown

In Southern California, unless you live within walking distance of a beach, you have to add the dangers of parking, paying for parking, and walking from your parking space to the list of potential Beach Day hazards.  And add some children into the mix, well…the treachery is endless and may make you give up altogether.  No need for Beach Day!  There is a tiny little frog pool we can play in right in our own backyard!

Periodically, I fight to overcome this futility because I do love the beach so, and I wish to impart its beauties and wonders upon my boy children, who are showing signs of loving it as much I as do.  During perfect moments, they run and scream unabashedly, hopping in the waves breaking on shore, digging in the sand, chasing after beach balls, making new friends, gobbling snacks and sand without caring which is which.  Inevitably, however, there have been child-related Beach Day disasters of epic proportions, mostly involving poop, and in one incident, a seawaterlogged peanut butter and jelly sandwich.  I will spare you the gore at this time.

The best I can do is learn from these incidents and move on, making minor adjustments each time we head on out for possible ill-fated Beach Days.  The best discovery I have made to date was Free Zuma, which is what my friends call Westward Beach, just north of Point Dume State Beach with its southern cliff boundary, rocky tidepools, and breathtaking scenic hikes.  With the kids this little I don’t care about any of that – all I know is that this stretch of beach offers the chance of a successful frolic in the surf and sand for hours on end.

Zuma Beach itself is a 2-mile-long stretch of unbroken beautiful white sandy beach with no rocks or points to break the surf, which means the waves can get huge.  It also means that when the winds come in off the shore you are in for quite a sand storm.  Along most of this beach there is an enormous parking lot which costs $6 per day.  Walking from the car to the sand is not a terribly long walk, but it’s even shorter if you forgo the lots and turn in the other direction – south – to Free Zuma.

Free Zuma is known as such because you just park on the side of the road right up against the sand where there are no parking lots at all.  On busy beach days the roadside spots fill up by 10AM.  That limits the number of people who land on this part of the beach, so it’s never as crowded as its northern counterpart.  To get there from the city parts, take 101N to Kanan Rd, turn left and follow that 12 miles to Pacific Coast Highway and turn right.  Just over the hill at the bottom of the slope, turn left on Westward Beach road.  There is no stop sign or light there, so look carefully.

How to get to Free Zuma

You’ll drive through some vegetation and then you emerge here:

Westward Beach

Point Dume

Park on the side of the road and enjoy a sandy day of fun, or venture farther south to Point Dume for exploring, hiking, tide pool inspecting, or any of the other many beach activities that one can do when one is not chasing a toddler.  My day at “Free Zuma” did not include a camera, so these pictures appear courtesy of Malibu Complete and Wikipedia.

*Yes, you are seeing that correctly.  There is a USC Trojans logo on the blanket in the background.  I blame its owner for cursing our otherwise perfect Beach Day.