Weekend Beach Picnic + My Picnic Essentials

Ahhhh, the beach…. Like a lot of people on the planet, it’s definitely one of my happy places.

This weekend I was able to get to the beach two days in a row! On Friday, my hubby convinced me to take an hour work break at lunchtime to head to the beach with him. There had been an insane amount of anchovies in the water the day before – apparently the largest school of northern anchovy seen in local waters in 30 years:

(source)

Wow right?! There are so many anchovies it looks like an oil slick. Adam had gone surfing and swam amongst them the day before and said it was really cool. We were hoping the fish would still be around, but they had moved on by Friday afternoon. I’m not going to lie, if they were still there I probably would have been a little freaked out swimming in the middle of a school of that size!

On Saturday evening, we decided to pack a dinner and head to the beach for a picnic. It was such a nice night there, and we had the entertainment of a hilarious dog right in front of us having a blast getting crushed by waves as he chased his tennis ball.

To top off our beach picnic, we had a celebrity sighting! Singer Jason Mraz walked onto the beach with what appeared to be his family, and sat down right next to us. We Googled him afterwards (obviously), and he resides around here. Ever since then I’ve been singing, Do you hear me? I’m talking to you.. Across the water, across the deep blue ocean under the open sky…  But I digress.

Picnics are one of my favorite ways to enjoy a meal, and I think I became quite the picnicker when we lived in the Bay Area. One of my friends even bought me a picnicking backpack as a gift, and it has come in handy a lot! The backpack comes with a cutting board, silverware, glasses, plates, and other things that fit right into their own little spots. So often we would take my backpack full of food with us to our favorite local winery, choose a bottle of wine to go along with our food, and sit on their patio for a couple of hours just soaking up the day.

For my beach picnic this weekend, I packed sandwiches of tofurky (me)/turkey (him), cheddar cheese, avocado, and tomato on rustic rolls, pretzel thins with garlic hummus and mango slices.

I usually have some essentials that I make sure to bring on picnics, and here they are:

1.) Bread. I think I could eat a hunk of fresh bread every day!

2.) Cheese. I love bringing a few types of cheese to my picnics. Monterey Jack, muenster, cheddar and mozzarella are some of my favorites.

3.) Fruit. Just what type of fruit varies depending on my mood and the season, but some common fruits I bring to picnics include apple, strawberries, pineapple, cherries and peaches. Dried fruit also complements my cheese and bread selection, and is so easy to throw into my bag. 

4.) Wine. As far as beverages go, what better to go with bread, cheese, and fruit than wine? If it’s a summer day, I like a chilled white (my favorite varietals are viognier, riesling, or chardonnay!). If the temperature isn’t too warm, I’ll pick a lighter red wine. (Also, water’s a given, because I bring water just about everywhere all the time!)

5.) A Salty Snack. Kale chips, almonds, lentil chips, whole grain tortilla chips, Popchips, pretzels cashews.. I’m sure to bring one of these salty snacks to munch on.

And if salty just isn’t doing it for me that day, sometimes post-picnic I find myself at a fro yo joint loading up on whatever flavors spark my interest. This was the case last night!

There you have it – my picnic must-haves! I like to keep it pretty simple for picnics, and take advantage of the fact that it requires little prep and makes it acceptable to eat copious amounts of cheese, bread and fruit. 😉

What are your picnic essentials? When was your last celebrity spotting?