Dan woke Mio and I up on Saturday morning, announcing that he wanted to take us to a beach called Heart’s Desire Beach. I’d never heard of the beach before, but it sounded like such a cute name for a beach and it was a beautiful day, so we quickly packed up our beach gear and hopped in the car to embark on this surprise trip that Dan had planned for us.

The beach is in the Tomales Bay/Point Reyes area, and took us about an hour and half to drive there. We stopped by Drakes Bay Oyster Company before going to the beach, so we could pick up a bunch of oysters to grill for lunch. I’d been talking about wanting to go to Hog Island Oyster Farm, but we hadn’t been yet because it requires reservations and we weren’t sure when we’d want to go. This was a great alternative, and not as crowded of a location — we just picked up our oysters and left to go grill them at the beach.

So excited to try their oysters!
Arriving at Drakes Bay Oyster Shack

 

Getting our fresh oysters!

 

Checking out the oysters!
Checking out the oysters!

 

Pricing of the oysters
We decided that for our first time shucking our own fresh oysters, it was “go big or go home” and we got a bunch of the large jumbo oysters!

 

Oysters in hand, we got back in the car and drove over to Heart’s Desire Beach, which was only about ten minutes from the oyster shack.

Arriving at Heart's Desire Beach
It really was called “Heart’s Desire Beach.” Such a cute name!

 

Jumbo oysters!
We immediately set up our picnic table and started the grill up, laying out oysters and corn.

 

Mio is so happy!
Mio is so happy to finally be out of the car!

 

Mio got a hold of the lemons
She got a hold of the lemons…

 

Love that smile!
Love that smile! It just tickles me every time…

 

Shuck that oyster!
The oysters off the grill — time to shuck those suckers!

 

He got it open!
Shucking was difficult at times, but we got the hang of it!

 

Glorious fresh oyster, ready for the eating!
Glorious fresh oyster, ready for the eating!

 

About to dig in.
So excited to dig in.

 

Mio loves to eat corn on the cob!
Mio was content eating her corn… for a couple months now, she’s been able to eat it on the cob.

 

Mio and Mama at lunch
Thank you Dan for grilling us a delicious lunch!

 

After lunch, it was time for us to play on the beach… this was of course the highlight of the day for our little waterbug.

Heart's Desire Beach... such a cute name for a beach!

 

Filling her bucket with water.
Mio filling her bucket with water. For her, playing in the water is serious business!

 

Dan showing Mio how to build a sand castle.
Dan showing Mio how to build a sand castle.

 

Making fun objects in the sand.
Making fun objects in the sand.

 

Our little family at the beach.
Our little family at the beach.

 

Playing with our sweet Mio.
With our sweet little Mio…

 

Biggest smile on the beach came from a piece of seaweed.
Mio’s biggest smile on the beach came from discovering a piece of seaweed… interesting.

 

A video Dan took of Mio on the beach.

Hanging out on the beach.
Drying off on the shore.

 

Mio having a good time.

 

Stylin' in her shades.
Stylin’ in her shades.

 

Mio had so much fun that she fell asleep for almost the entire drive back home. Thanks hubby for planning such a memorable, fun trip for us! 😀