Pebble Beach Day Out

Beyond the wave-sacked, lie the pockmarked dunes, heaps dug by the claws of scaly thrashers. Here they huddle, my blood kin flogging grim pleasures, wolfing eggy sandwiches, dipping tea-stained teeth into beakers. By a shoaling shale and monochrome spray one brine-splattered small fry. A boyhood caught in a swirling freshet, he whales barefoot in the flounder, skimming the slimy kelp, stalking a slippage of tugging surf. Her demeanor soggy at last, mother goads to be led to the creaking camper. Father smokes a plug of leathery shag, grunts upright, walks toward the sea. A toppled thermos and leftovers scooped up and lugged away. Windswept, the lingerers trudge from the chilly churn, while a soused and hectoring bay records a working-class holiday.