Recently the weather has been getting warmer as we get closer to summer. It has been in the 80s, so last weekend one of my best friends and I went to the beach. We went down to the closest spot called Leadbetter Beach. 

I’ve lived on the Mesa my whole life and have always had Leadbetter has my go to beach destination. There may be better beaches here in Santa Barbara, but I love being able just to walk down the block to the ocean. I honestly know the beach too well, from the point full of rocks, surfers, and local Mesa people to the other end with Shoreline Cafe, a lot of seaweed, and the parking lot where everyone else goes. 

My best friend, Ysabella, and I went down to Leadbetter to cool off. Surprisingly there were a lot of people, especially for everyone supposively quarantined. I brought down my paddle board and we found a social distanced spot to put stuff they left off to the water. The sand was fiery hot but the water was quite cold, it felt refreshing to finally be able to cool off after extremely hot days inside. The ocean was also pretty clear, you could kinda make out the sand at the bottom, but I had seen clearer days. We paddled around the coast, paddling back to the point after the wind blew us towards the harbor. We noticed a lot of surfers trying to catch waves and a couple other paddle boarders. When we came back to shore we worked on our tan and then went to Shoreline Cafe to get fries. 

Shoreline Cafe is a little spot towards the harbor that always has the perfect snacks for a long day at the beach. The restaurant part was closed but you could go in and order some takeout. The line was quite long but the fries were a perfect way to end a day at the beach. 

I got scared the other day as the Californian governor said all beaches in California were closed, but by some miracle they only closed Orange County beaches and Santa Barbara’s beaches remain open. I don’t know what I would have done if it continues to get hot and I can’t even walk down to the beach.