Behold! Heaven on earth? This is Crystal Cove State Park in California. We discovered this gem of a beach when my sister suggested we vi...

California Part 4 - Crystal Cove

Monday, September 28, 2015 , , , , , , , ,

Behold!
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Heaven on earth? This is Crystal Cove State Park in California. We discovered this gem of a beach when my sister suggested we visit Laguna Beach for the tide pools, and we penned that in the itinerary. But then I started to fret about my kids finding seashells because it was their number one goal for our trip {they didn't know about Disneyland}. So I Googled, "can you find seashells at laguna beach", and one of the first results was a review for Laguna's next door neighbor, Crystal Cove State Park Beach. People were raving about Crystal Cove and the shells.

Then, I read the part about the historic district, and we were sold.
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We parked, hiked down the hill, under a tunnel, and found ourselves in a 1930s beach village.

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There were many people there, but it wasn't crowded the way the Santa Monica Pier had been.

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It was. Beautiful.  (o✪‿✪o)


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{A tiny crab.}
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{Posing like Ariel.}
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The sand was solid, much easier to walk on than Santa Monica's. The gulls dropped {what I think were} blue mussel shells and the girls collected many. But the water was the best, a sweet respite from the heat while we watched the sun set over the Pacific.

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We saw a few tide pools with a few sea creatures.

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This was almost our last photograph of Paxton. Thanks, Papa!
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{Kidding.}

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I don't really have much to say, I think the photos speak for themselves. Justin and I experienced a really corny moment where we had stars in our eyes and sand everywhere and we said, "This was long overdue." Everyone does that at some point on vacation, right? {Say yes.}

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You can rent a place to stay right on the beach. We might have to add that to our bucket list. The state park was set up to prevent a large resort taking over this piece of beauty. Instead a very vintage looking village is the only building that's been done here.

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It was hard to leave, not knowing when or if we'd splash in the Pacific again, but we faced a hike back up to the parking lot in the dark. {Not so bad, turns out for a buck or two you can hop on a shuttle from the village to the parking lots.}

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I think everyone who is familiar with California can name their favorite beach. Now I have mine.

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We toyed with the idea of joining this wedding celebration...

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...but we were hungry for more than wedding cake. So we crossed another California to-do off our list.

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In-N-Out. Yaaaaaassss!

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I call this Passed Out, Pacific Style.

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I've been missing this place ever since.
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Cheers,
Heather

See more of our California 2015 trip:
Part 1 - Santa Monica Pier
Part 2 - The Getty Center
Part 3 - Erickson Family
To Be Continued...



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