I live near Bodega Bay. Beautiful drive no matter how you get there. I love going to the ocean but not necessarily stopping at the beach. It has to be absolutely roasting for me to want to get out, but I enjoy sitting in the car and watching the ocean with the windows rolled down. It's cold and windy a lot even if it's hot inland, and I get winded trekking on the sand. But if it's hot out and the sand is warm and I can sit against a giant log or in a man-made tee-pee, I love it. When the weather is perfect and I'm feeling adventurous, I hike up and down the beach looking for cool rocks and shells. At Doran Beach I'll climb the rocks and investigate the tide pools, usually there are star fish, sea anemone, mussels, small crabs. Sometimes there are big crab you can catch and eat. Every year at Goat Rock a group of seals make their home there. The sunsets are absolutely beautiful. Whales come up and down the Pacific, I've seen some up close. At Monterey Bay I've seen a pod of dolphins. Doran Beach is the most peaceful part of the ocean, the other beaches are too dangerous to swim in, literally, you can die swimming at those beaches because of dip (forget the name) that lies just beyond where most people like to play in, it will suck you in and spin you around until you drown, but even though the water is very cold even in the summer, Doran Beach is really the only beach calm enough to swim in. There's nothing to pull you in and it's very safe. And of course, at Salmon Creek and even Bodega Dunes you can have fun rolling down the sandy hills (I've actually jumped and flipped in the air and came tumbling down the dunes).

I think some people just aren't beach people. I have a love-hate relationship with the beach. Writing it out, you can see the appeal, but personally I do not like the cold and the wind and I'm so out of shape that even tiny hills can be too much for me and that's just getting INTO the beach. But like I said, give a scorching day with minimal wind, and a log to lean up against and claim as my own for the day so that when I'm up for it, I can take a walk and look for rocks and cool stuff, I could enjoy staying there for hours.