I’m back from vacation at Bolinas, a magical, charming little place I’d somehow never visited, despite being a lifelong California girl and beach-lover.
Friend Cindy introduced me to Bolinas, an adorable seaside community in which her family has had roots for generations.
The ocean view from the cottage deck.
Cindy suggested I pack expecting chilly weather, because usually, when it’s blistering hot in Redding, it’s chilly in Bolinas. I was OK with that. I love the ocean in any weather.
As it turned out, the very days we were in Bolinas it rained in Redding, so Bolinas basked in text-book beautiful weather. We saw stars at night, and could see the night lights of San Francisco across the way, so twinkly and bright that it looked like a long glittery belt – a view I’d never seen of San Francisco.
The great weather allowed us lots of beach-walking time, and a chance to watch the surfers, look for shells and talk. We talked a lot.
Cindy and I met at the Redding Co-Op Preschool, attended by our children what seems a lifetime ago. Over the years we went from each of us being part of a married couple to being divorced and single. Each of us had one girl and two boys, each of whom grew up and moved away. We are both grandmothers (she’s Gran, I’m Noni).
It’s fair to say that both of us have experienced some things – good and bad – we never would have predicted. We each returned as older students to college; journalism for me, a teaching credential for her.
We’re less idealistic now than we were when we met as young mothers more than 30 years ago. But we’re also less rigid, less fearful and have learned to let a lot of stuff go. And we’ve learned to take advantage of joyful opportunities when they come our way, because Lord knows life’s minefield is sometimes studded with unsavory bits and pieces.
On our last morning’s stroll along the beach a girl of about 10 approached us with a piece of lined paper covered with pencil writing. My antennae went up. What did she want? What was she selling? I had no money on me, so it wouldn’t have mattered.
Not wanting to be rude, we read the note she’d given us.
“Bolinas Beach Spa!! (Next to ocean.) Located at big teepee. Come today & only pay in valuables from beach & shells, coins, sand dollars, ETC. WE HAVE A GIFT SHOP! Cool trinkets, Amazing Objects and MORE! We do … massage, seaweed facial, and therapy and cuticle lotion. Plz COME!”
Cindy, being an elementary school teacher, and I, being nosy, decided we’d check out the Bolinas Beach Spa. Why not?
First, we did as the note asked and searched the beach for some acceptable valuables. We found a few pretty shells.
Before we reached the tipi, we noticed a young woman lying on her stomach, getting a back massage, complete with one of the kids doing a wobbly walk on the woman’s back. That’s when Cindy and I agreed that we weren’t up for a massage, but we’d be OK with the cuticle lotion treatment and seaweed finger wraps.
First came the negotiation, as the enterprising children examined Cindy’s offerings to deem them worthy currency for the Bolinas Beach Spa. Our shells were accepted. The kids sprang into action.
Friend Cindy Moore shows her found beach objects to the proprietors of the Bolinas Beach Spa. Our shells were approved.
I sat inside the tipi, while Cindy sat upon the sand a few feet away where the girls quickly went to work rubbing their special “lotion” (suntan lotion) into Cindy’s cuticles, and then gently wrapped each finger in wet seaweed.
Cindy and I had questions, and the kids were happy to reply. It turns out they were students at the Bolinas Surf Camp for kids, and they’d created the Bolinas Beach Spa during their breaks. They were here vacationing with their families, who come here almost every summer. The surf camps cost $400 for four days, by the way.
The Bolinas Beach Spa group consisted of two sets of siblings, including the only boy, who was 8; a convincing salesman on the beach before we’d committed to our spa sessions, assuring us he’d enjoyed one of the treatments himself, which was super relaxing and left his cuticles feeling great.
Cindy suggested that he might want to save some of that special lotion for the boy’s face, which was getting sunburned.
The little girl who did my treatment, while her friend looked on, said we were lucky to have come to the two-day pop-up Bolinas Beach Spa when we did, because they’d be closing it soon. She was a bit disappointed that her surf teacher had yet to send even one customer to them, because he’d said he would.
She said that was too bad, because even though they realized they were just kids, they were pretty knowledgeable about spas, and massage in particular, because one of their parents is a masseuse. The girl said if she’d had the massage to do over on her previous customer, she probably would have skipped the part where she walked barefoot on the the woman’s back, because the woman complained that the sand hurt when it was ground into her skin.
The girl said she learned a lesson there. No more walking on bare backs with sandy feet. Wise policy.
Within about 10 minutes my and Cindy’s treatments were complete. We thanked the kids, who thanked us for stopping by. They posed for a group shot of the Bolinas Beach Spa staff.
As we walked down the beach, Cindy and I talked about the kids, how smart and earnest and creative they were. Yes, we also talked about the potential pitfalls of the kids’ enthusiastic business venture, mainly along the lines of what if they’d encountered a creepy customer. Then what? Oh my gosh, so much could have gone so wrong at the little Bolinas Beach Spa.
That led to our discussion about the kids’ surfing lessons, in the ocean, where there are sharks and drownings and jellyfish and rogue waves. Again, potentially so much could go wrong.
But nothing went wrong. And everything was OK. There were no creepy customers. No sharks. No drownings. No jellyfish.
Sunburn was the worst culprit.
And that’s the thing with life. Yes, sometimes bad stuff happens to good people: infidelity, betrayal, cancer, loss. But even more often life’s path is sprinkled with sweet opportunities, ours for taking, if only we look up, pay attention, take a tiny leap of faith and say yes.
We could have ignored the kids and kept walking and talking, and would have missed out on something neither of us will ever forget. Because we accepted these young strangers’ invitation, we experienced a few delightful moments at the Bolinas Beach Spa, run by four forward-thinking kids who offered services in exchange for a payment of trinkets; things scattered on the beach all around them.
They must have known that we’d value it more if we paid for it. And they were right. It was absolutely priceless.
