Northern California’s Stinson Beach

: Surf’s Up

One of the great things about living in California is our proximity to both the mountains and the beaches. In fact, just last month I mentioned our plans to hit a local beach to a friend of mine, which prompted him to relate to me his family’s plans to head up to Lake Tahoe that same weekend for some spring skiing. Only in California, baby.

Anyway, the girl had wanted to do a beach trip with her friends for quite some time, so on the recent Spring Break holiday we loaded up five girls and made the short jaunt to Stinson Beach.

Located on Highway 1 just north of San Francisco, (and at the end of a long and winding road down the hillside) Stinson Beach offers ocean lovers a quick, convenient get-away. It also offers plenty of sandy beach for walking, playing, and sun-bathing. If you’re brave enough to brave the cold waters, then there’s plenty of water to brave; an ocean’s worth in fact. On this particular day I was feeling somewhat cowardly – what with it only being about 70 degrees. Certainly warm enough to enjoy the sand and sun, but a wee bit too cold to do so wet, in my opinion. The kids, however, had no qualms at all about pitching themselves headlong into the surf.

Stinson’s public beach offers bathrooms, showers and good-sized changing areas. We brought a cooler with our own drinks, sandwiches, etc., however if you prefer you can make a stop at the Stinson Beach Market, literally an eight minute walk from the public beach.

If you’re looking to spend more than just the day, Stinson offers several motels for your lodging pleasure. You’ve got The Sandpiper , The Stinson Beach Motel, your Ocean Court Motel, and the Redwood Haus B&B. Of course if you’d rather, you can just hop back on the highway for the relatively quick trip back to San Francisco, where there are oodles of great hotels to fit your every need.

The afternoon flew by, and we adults found ourselves making the difficult decision to leave by 4-ish in hopes of avoiding some of the commute traffic (not everyone gets spring break vacation, right?). The kids were all for hanging around for a few more hours. And as the long days of summer approach, that is definitely a viable option.

Next time you’re looking for a quick and easy beach trip, grab your boogie boards and head for Stinson.