Oh How I Love The Beach!

Tuesday of last week we headed to the beach.  We wanted to give my parents a taste of the Spanish coast.  Selfishly wanting to experience it as well!  Ha!  If you can't tell, we love the beach!

I really wanted to stay on or near the beach within a good price range for a family of 7!  Not an easy task!  I tirelessly searched and searched and within days of leaving I found a very reasonable place in Oliva, Spain, just south of Valencia.  On the internet it looked very bare bones, but to be able to look out over the porch to the waves was what I was aiming for!

I was a bit disappointed when we arrived Tuesday evening.  The caretaker seemed a bit strange and the place smelled.  I thought "Oh great, what have I gotten us in to for 4 days?!"  The kitchen left MUCH to be desired and I was a bit grossed out by it and the haphazard, dingy shower curtain barely hanging by it's broken rings in the tub.  Luckily, the sheets were wrapped in plastic and smelled very nice.  That was a bit of a relief!  It seemed the place had just been closed up for awhile and needed some airing out.

What changed the perspective?

Waking up to this the next morning and the next 3 after that!!

Could you resist that?  Just take a look at that sand!!  Beautiful!!

This is the apartment from the outside.  Ours was the top floor of the orange house in the middle.  The porch in front was very large and we also had access to the roof.

It needs some TLC, but other than that it was a great place.  The kids loved it!  That made me feel better that they thought it was so great and didn't even notice the dinginess of the place.

Did you see that smooth sand with just a few footprints in the above picture?  A big tractor would come through in the morning combing the beach to smooth it out.

The area around us was mostly residential, although it was a public beach.  It wasn't a touristy area at all.  That can be nice and it can also be an inconvenience.  It would have been nice to have some restaurants or stores nearby, but there weren't any!  We had to drive to get anything, but it worked out fine.

For April it was still chilly and the water.....brrrrr.  It sure didn't stop my kids!!

They must have gotten my Alaska blood, right?  Which I lost somewhere along the way!  I could hardly step in the water.  It was freezing!!  Brrrr!

 The beach can be such an interesting place to find things!!  We found this piece of wood with some type of plate on it.

I began to wonder where it'd been, what it was from.

My dad figured it was from part of a crate slat or something.  When we got home I did a little googling and found it to be a packaging company.  My dad was right!

I had a hard time narrowing down the beach pics, so forgive me for it being picture heavy!

 Can you make out Jerry & Karis?

 My dad getting his white legs some sun!  Ha!  We won't discuss my white legs!!

 The sand was SO beautiful!

 Buried alive!

 I love this action shot of Brennan jumping in the surf!

We had a great time!  Hmmm, can we get one more beach trip in before the move??  I guess we'll see!