Life's a Beach!

Yesterday morning we were laying in bed trying to figure out what to do for the day. It was the first unofficial day of summer vacation. Unofficial because we technically have to go to school on Monday, though both of us are finished cleaning and packing for the year. But, because we haven’t accrued enough “annual leave” time, we have to work on Monday. Anyway, the important thing here is that we only have to show up for work on Monday. We don’t actually have to do anything once there. In fact, I’ll be watching DVDs all day on my Smart Board.

Anyway, since there was no school work to be done this weekend, and since it’s our last weekend home as a family (the boys and I will be leaving for 5 weeks in MI next Saturday morning), we decided we needed to do something fun (and, more importantly, inexpensive) as a family. It was at that exact moment that we received a text message from a friend saying that that she and her husband and two kids were going to the beach for the day and asking if we wanted to tag along. Our decision was sealed immediately, and we began to gather the necessary trappings for a day at the beach. We packed all the water and swimming gear, drinks and snacks and a couple of chairs and were ready to go within 30 minutes.

It was a little different than our last visit to the same place – Carolina Beach. When we went in April, we were lucky enough to have the use of a mid-century, beach-front house, affectionately named “Nana’s Beach House” for 4 days and 3 nights. It was a great place to stay and we had a ton of fun while we were there. Amazingly, as we pulled up to the stoplight by the boardwalk at Carolina Beach, Sam looked out the window and yelled, “Yes! We’re going back to the beach house!” We had to explain to him that we weren’t going to the beach house, just to the beach. He could not fathom how we would go to the beach with no beach house. The answer is paid parking, public restrooms and no shade or A/C to be found. The water, however, was the nicest I have ever experienced in all my years of visiting the Outer Banks. It was so warm that it was almost not refreshing in the overwhelming heat. I said, “almost.” It was fantastic!

When the boys were sufficiently sun-baked and nearing dehydration, we packed up our stuff and hauled it back up the boardwalk to the showers. After a quick rinse, we trudged back to the car and headed home. All told, we actually spent more time in the car than at the beach, but it was worth it. This time next week, we’ll be back in MI for the summer and daddy will be here, punching a time card at the Fayetteville Observer every night to put together one of the sports pages.