Last week Brandi and I took the kids to Pirate's Cove, a little piece of Corona del Mar that's supposed to have great water for little ones to play in. We've done Corona del Mar before, but we did the main beach, which is pretty dang awesome. I wanted to try the kiddie area. Warning: This tale is not for the squeamish or faint of heart.
Pirate's Cove is accessed by going off to the right of the big main beach and climbing over some cliffs. You heard me--cliffs. Now, I'd actually been here before. I came to CDM a number of times while I was in college with my friends, and once I went with a friend to Pirate's Cove for our church's baptism (how cool would it be to be baptized in the ocean?). But somehow the memory is too distant for me to have been properly warned. The water and beach might be perfect for little ones (and, to be fair, it really is), but, and excuse my language, how in the hell are you supposed to get the little ones over there?!?! Honestly. Here's how Brandi and I did it--with three toddlers (Brandi was borrowing an extra from a friend).
First of all, to get to the main beach (which is a state beach) you have to drive down this super steep road to the parking lot, which costs $15. There's free parking on the street above, but then there's the super steep road to walk down (and, consequently, back up, after you've spent a day in sand and sun). That was all well and good in college, but for two moms with three toddlers--not ideal. Plus, Brandi had swiped a friend's state beach pass, which should have enabled us to park for free. So down the bat cave we went, only to have the attendant tell us that while CDM was a state beach, the parking lot was owned by the city of Newport Beach. So our state park pass was no good. Seriously? Does that mean we can park on the sand? It did not. So it was either pay $15 for an hour or park at the top. Obviously we parked at the top. Then we descended the bat cave with the two bigger kids in the stroller (along with two of our bags of toys, diapers, food, towels, etc.--you know, because doing anything with small children means dragging along the contents of your entire house) and one babe in arms. Thankfully, no one died.
We haven't even gotten to the rock climbing part.
I climbed up the rocks to run some reconnaissance, which was actually not too bad. Then I looked down. Straight down. About six or seven feet straight down. I then turned back around and told Brandi that yes, the beach and water were perfect for toddlers. But unless we wanted to throw the toddlers into the water, it was not feasable for us to do it. Then I reminded her that the main beach was pretty great, and that it was totally acceptable for the adventure to do that. She said no, we came to do Pirate's Cove, and we should figure out a way to do it. So I want to make this part perfectly clear: I was all for chickening out. I forced no one on this adventure.
So I climbed back up and looked down. Getting the kids up was actually doable. Challenging, but doable. It was getting them onto the beach that would be a problem. But I figured it was about five feet (dead wrong), and if I jumped down Brandi could hand the kids down to me. Perhaps you're thinking, Shannon, that's a great idea. But did you consider how you would get back up? I did not.
So that's how we did it. We hauled the three kids and all our crap (except the stroller, which Brandi went and got later) up the rocks, I hopped down a solid seven feet, then Brandi slid/passed the children down one by one. Then she passed down the bags, dragged the stroller up, set it in the rocks up top, then hopped down. This:
But the upshot was that we got to play in this:
It really was a perfect little beach for toddlers. The water was practically waveless. Adalee still demonstrated a startling and irrational fear of the water, the sand, everything.
She pretty much did that for most of the morning, sometimes crying, sometimes saying "water uh oh." Aidan was in an odd daze for the entire morning, not really saying or doing anything. Which I think was okay since he normally cries all day long when he's with a babysitter.
Ben, my fearless little fishy, had zero fear. This is probably bad, because it means that he may just run right into the open ocean (not cove waters) and get whisked away by the current. In fact, that's just what he tried to do the other night when we went to Newport for the brief hour of sunshine that managed to poke through the otherwise constantly cloudy and gloomy sky. But that's a different post. Right now we're talking about the pure, unadulterated joy of Pirate's Cove. Just for my little man--pretty sure no one else enjoyed themselves. Well, I did, mostly because Ben was having the time of his life. In fact, not only did he actually swim, he got me to swim. You heard me. I stripped down to my swimming suit (miracle #1) and then swam in the ocean (miracle #2). I did not die (miracle #3). I do not have pictures of this because I was too busy just being in the moment and enjoying playing with my child to be tethered to my camera (miracle #4).
Shortly after our rock climbing efforts, I noticed some people walking around the cliff through the water to our little cove (on which we were completely alone). I decided to run another recon mission. I walked around the cliff face through the very shallow water (with Ben--I wanted to see if it was possible to do it, whatever it was, with a toddler; also because he wouldn't let me leave without him). Lo and behold, just a couple of feet out and around a small corner was a much larger stretch of cove-y beach with loads of people and....a staircase. Yep--a staircase. Just a few feet from the cliff we jumped from. I went up the stairs with Ben. Sure enough, if I'd gone just a few feet further up from where we jumped down, I would have seen the staircase. There was still rock climbing to get to it--just the fairly easy kind, not the cliff jumping. Note to self.
Ben and I returned, shared the good news that we had a way out, then got to playing. Well, Ben and I. Aidan sat there like a dazed rock and Brandi repeatedly tried to get Adalee to calm down and play.
After playing, having lunch, and trying to take a group picture, we gathered up our belongings and walked around the cliff to the real Pirate's Cove and adjacent staircase. Only the tide had come up, so it was way deeper than before. Still doable though. Then we ascended the stairs and climbed back down the rocks (a lot harder than climbing up, by the way). Finally we were back on the main beach. We then stripped down the kids, hosed them off in the showers, and dressed them, assembly line style, in front of God and everyone. Then we went up the bat cave. Brandi carried Aidan and I pushed the big kids in the stroller. I'm incredible, by the way. That was no easy task.
Price: $15 to park in the parking lot, free on the street above, but only if you're
The trip: Pretty short from where we are--maybe 15 minutes. It's a surprisingly easy and quick veering off PCH. But then there's the hill...
The highlights: The water is perfect. It's just calm enough for swimming, but it still has a little bit of a current so the water isn't stagnant and nasty. It's also really secluded (if you don't mind jumping off a cliff with your baby or wading around a big rock).
The downsides: Um, the rock climbing. Brandi and I told the kids that next time the dads were coming and we weren't bringing any food, diapers, toys, or towels.
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