Treasure Island

Growing up in southern Orange County, ten minutes away from Laguna Beach, I have always had access to the ocean.  Ironically, however, I didn’t indulge in all the beach has to offer until high school.  My family didn’t make trips to the beach very often; family events, unusually warm weekends and Fourth of July celebrations were the usual excuses to spend the day by the sea.  It wasn’t until high school that I became a “beach person” but when I did, you couldn’t keep me away.  It became my happy place, somewhere I could escape from the real world and just relax with the sound of the waves crashing on the shore.  I loved swimming in the ocean, finding treasures in the sand (sea glass, unique shells, etc.), and exploring the tide pools and all the creatures they held.  I can find some of my happiest memories at the beach. 

During the summer, my friends and I would spend our days beach hopping, spending a couple hours at multiple beaches throughout the day and always searching for a new hidden cove or bay we hadn’t been to before.  My favorite beach, the cove that I spent the most time at, is Treasure Island.  It is a beach made up of three small coves and during the school year it was empty all day.  My best friend, Amanda, and I devoted every Monday, Mermaid Monday, to Treasure Island and we would spend the day swimming in the water, laying in the sand, and expanding our collections of sea shells and sea glass.  We even invested in waterproof iPhone cases so we could take our phones into the ocean and take way too many selfies.  In fact, every picture I have of the two of us is either in the ocean or on the beach.

When we couldn’t make it to Treasure Island during the day due to our work schedule, we would head out around 6:30 in the afternoon and have our Sunset Swims (actually, we called them Sunset Schwims because we talk like toddlers sometimes…).  These evening adventures involved a quicker dip in the water that was beginning to become a little too chilly to stay in for too long, and blankets and sweatshirts to warm us after our swim as we sat in the sand and watched the sunset.  There is nothing more beautiful to me than watching the sun set into the ocean and the colors that it paints in the sky and in the water.  It is an incredible and humbling reminder for me of the beauty of God’s creation.  Those nights spent with my closest friend are memories I will cherish forever and I can always find those memories at Treasure Island.

The ocean possesses something that brings out a side of me that not much else can.  It makes me so happy and so goofy and it makes me forget about the real world.  When I am in the ocean, I am in an entirely other world and it is truly exhilarating.   Floating in a body of water that is bigger and more expansive than anything I can imagine is overwhelming and awesome and reminds me of water’s power.  The tide just needs to change and I can be dragged out to sea.  I have so much respect and love for the ocean and its power and it is a place that I can call home.