A Week at the Shore

I am not big on beach vacations. I don’t particularly like sitting in the sun. I don’t love the clean-up after being out in the sand and salt water.

But I do love the feel of the sand under my feet. And I like being in the water (although I tend to get smacked around by waves and swallow what feels like half the Atlantic Ocean). I like walking along the water, in the shallows. I love, love, love digging for sand crabs (it’s all catch-and-release). 

I love watching our kids – jumping in the waves, boogie boarding, catching things (sand crabs, hermit crabs, regular crabs), collecting shells, building sand castles and giant moats.

They caught 52 sand crabs in just about an hour – poor things were all stuffed into a rather small pink bucket with some sand and water. I think they were very happy when they were finally released back into the wild. They also caught quite a few hermit crabs and tried to have a race – but the hermit crabs would not cooperate and all went in different direction.

We also went kayaking and biking. And we had a movie day (“Hook” was excellent – I love Robin Williams). And we went to a bakery, and to a candy store, and to a giant farmers market.

It was a busy week at the shore. I am so glad I am back home.

By the way. Dear reader, if you or your kids tend to get cold in the water and begin to shake uncontrollably after about 10 minutes – wetsuits work really, really well! The water was probably around 69F? So not frigid, but not super warm, either. With wetsuits on, all 3 of our kids (even the ones super sensitive to cold) were able to stay in the water for over an hour.