Thousand Steps Beach

On Tuesday our second stop in Laguna was another beach called Thousand Steps Beach. It's only about 225 steps, according to Yelp reviews written by dedicated yet disappointed runners, but they are a bit higher than a regular step and at an angle it seemed like. The road was even steeper than the first place we parked and I felt like if the incline had been any steeper, Michael's car would have flipped backwards! But when we parked, a nice lady drove by and warned us that even though there wasn't a sign, lots of cars get ticketed in that area. We turned back onto the main road, but after only passing six cars, there was an open spot to parallel park. Hooray! I was very excited about this one too because in the reviews, some people wrote about how you could go in the caves and one girl posted a picture of herself holding a starfish. But when we walked over to the only cave we saw, there was a warning sign saying people were not allowed on the rocks. So we sat down at another area for a few minutes before walking the other direction. I liked that area better and we took pictures there, even though it also did not have a cave.

That sign hanging from the balcony said "Danger- Keep Out: Warning, Falling Rock" and it looks like the house was never finished being built. I assumed that cave didn't count as part of the cave. I checked Yelp again last night and the caves looks very big and open with sand at the bottom, so I don't know if all the people climbed over the rocks like they were not supposed to. They had life guards at this beach and when we were leaving, I heard a guy over the walkie-talkie ask, "Can we do a check at the cave for teenage alcohol drinkers?" I should have followed him or at least asked if there was a way to get to the caves. I did not read any reviews explaining exactly how to get there, it only said they were to the left of the stairs, which is where we went first.. And now for Cruise Ship Rock, below this cliff picture!!

I liked Victoria Beach better and everyone was huffing and puffing on their way back up the 225 stairs. Michael pointed out some cool roller coaster ramps along the residential area, attached to some of the houses so they could roll down to the beach a Donkey Kong cart, instead of taking so many stairs. One of the cart doors had the medical lifeguard symbol (a white plus sign over a red square). I had originally also planned for us to go to Crescent Bay, another beach area 10 minutes towards the center of town, as well as Newport Beach, an extra 15 minutes further up the coast, to watch the sun set. Newport Beach was where the first Christy Miller books took place and she and her boyfriend, Todd, frequently went back there and ate breakfast with the seagulls during the later books. But our beach time, especially at this one, just involved a lot of waiting around, feeling like we needed to stay in the sand for a certain amount of time since we drove all that way. However, we were both tired and ready to go home by 7pm after hiking. I didn't realize until I was editing these pictures that we did not take any digital photos together here. Probably because I was bummed about not finding the caves.