Weekend Adventures in Tomales Bay

On Saturday, we headed out to the coast to escape the heat! Tomales Bay is about an hour and a half from our house and one of our very favorite places. If I had to choose a perfect day, it would definitely involve heading out there and chowing down on some delicious barbecued oysters right on the water (if you’re ever in the area, our two favorite places to get some are Nick’s Cove and Marshall Store. They grill them up fresh for you right there and top them with some absolutely amazing sauces – everything from barbecue to bacon and worchestershire!). 

The weather out in Tomales and Point Reyes is usually much cooler than the rest of the Bay Area, so we packed up our swimsuits AND sweatshirts, chicken sausages and chips, and headed out with the kids! There are many beaches out there, but our very favorite one is Heart’s Desire. The beach is sheltered from the wind and the water is usually warm enough for swimming. If I had to pick the best family friendly beach in the Bay Area (for those with little kids), I would definitely say this one! The water is warm and shallow. It’s basically like a giant tide pool and there’s so many cool things for little kids to explore there. As much as I love going to the Pacific, it’s nice to feel like you can let your kids run down to the water alone with their buckets to fill up rather than racing down there each and every time with them because of the waves. 😉 It’s the most “relaxing” beach experience with kids that I know of.

Anyway, we grabbed some shots during the day and sharing them below! That last photo is of the ice cream we stopped in Fairfax on the way home to get. OH MY WORD was it good. I had boysenberry, which they only make once a year with local berries. Homemade waffle cones, too! It was worth the long wait in line, then realizing they were cash only, getting out of line, walking down to the atm then coming back and waiting in the line again… 😉 

Anyway, it was actually super foggy for the first hour and a half of our visit but then the fog burned off, the sun came out and it was just plain gorgeous! The kids absolutely loved playing in the sand and exploring in the water. This beach is basically just families so it’s really, really nice. We brought everything we needed to grill sausages for lunch and