Every new year, we get a few Mondays off school. We usually plan small weekend trips - usually Tahoe or south a little to Santa Cruz, but this year we’ve stayed local. We have a big trip planned for spring break, so we’re holding off on the wanderlust for now, and appreciating our own backyard.

Yesterday we realized it’s been forever since we’ve done Lands End and it was time. :) We’ve always parked by the Sutro Baths when we’ve gone (I LOVE the Sutro Baths), but since our kids tire before we finish the whole loop (it’s between 3.5 & 4 miles total, and it takes a lot of extra time when you have kids who like to veer off the path and spend plenty of time climbing rocks at the beach), we decided to start on the other side of the loop near Seacliff & down the hill from Legion of Honor. HERE is the spot on the map.

If you’re in town for only a short bit and all you want are quick pics of views and then to move on to something else, the views are RIGHT there. Walk a few steps and get more views. All the way around it’s a new angle of the pretty bridge.

Jack kept up pretty well. The hike is honestly not hard for anyone but Jack, and he’s three so that feels fair. He did great getting there, but back to the car was a trek with a little guy going uphill and up stairs two hours past his nap.

I love how lush and green it is right now. There were puddles and areas where it was slightly muddy, but not bad considering how insanely rainy it’s been all month! Sunshine in the forecast for the week and I can already feel all of our moods getting collectively brighter. I love rain in moderation, but since our state needs rain in bulk, I’m doing my best not to complain about it… definitely appreciating every bit of sun when it does come out!

Ok, so in general, this isn’t any sort of challenging hike, but if you DO want to see the Labyrinth from the top, it’s a slightly treacherous outlook. My kids love risk and love keeping my heart pounding, but I only kept Maggie there with me to see it this time, and didn’t let her get near the edge like she wanted to. She wanted the best view so she could sketch it. She takes sketching supplies with her everywhere, and I love it. Brian took the other two down to try the maze while she sketched. :)

Ate some snacks by the rocks, then ventured down to the beach. It’s not like a “lay-out and sunbathe” beach… not that any SF beaches really are except on those heat wave weeks when they’re packed out. This one is mostly rocks. We had a competition boys vs. girls to build the best rock towers. Girls won easily, of course.

Sophie wanted to climb on one of the massive boulders at the ocean, but we restricted the kids to a nice giant rock right beside it where they could see thousands of mussels and massive starfish in the water as the waves crashed.

Allll those black shells on the rocks are mussels. It’s so crazy how many are just clustered there!

Sophie was first to get her feet accidentally wet, but Maggie got it BAD- up to her ankles. She wasn’t thrilled about it, but honestly, she was pretty chill considering how freezing her feet were the whole walk back. I’m resisting posting the shot of her adorable sad face when she realized how soaked she got.

It’s funny because when I told people I was pregnant with my first, second, and third child, we got the question throughout, “when are you going to move out of the city?” I know we have postage stamp backyards, and we have some definite gritty sidewalks and everything else, but ohhhhh, we are finding it is a GOOD place to raise a family. So many open spaces and beautiful history and everything else to explore, and yesterday reminded us again.

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