We had been hanging out to go to a proper beach, but sadly the weather had been uncooperative for most of our visit. While Astrid was perfectly happy with the little sandy cove near my parents apartment, I wanted to take her back to a ‘real’ beach. On our very first trip to the Sunshine Coast with Astrid in tow, we had taken her to the big beach. On that occasion she was far from impressed with the sand, the waves or the noise, as is evidenced from these photos from November 2011 when she was 4.5 months old.

We had been back to the Sunshine Coast twice between that visit and this one, but during Autumn and Winter so we hadn’t ventured to the beach on either occasion. Now it was February and I figured we should give it another try.

I was hoping for a lovely sunny day so we could have a swim and some fish and chips on the beach. Sadly the weather didn’t cooperate, so we waited until our second last day, when the rain had finally stopped for a couple of hours and made a dash for it. The beach was less than inspiring and looked like this………

Astrid seemed undeterred, as did half the population of the Sunshine Coast, who were out in force with a break in the rain. I wasn’t sure whether Astrid would be scared of the bigger waves, and the roar of the ocean on a rough, windy day, but she seemed quite fascinated. Here she is checking it all out……..

Next it was time to sit in the waves and let them wash all around her……… apparently that was pretty good!

Feeling brave she stood up, with Gramps, and did some wave jumping. Despite the waves being quite forceful and coming in above her waist height, she had a ball……..

Yep, she definitely enjoyed the big beach, we had to pry her away with promises of a swim in the pool and other bribery! She would have happily stayed for hours…… Maybe next visit, the weather might cooperate and we’ll have a longer visit to the big beach.