Down By The Sea

I'm sitting in the small public library of a little beach town in North Carolina. We're here this week with Scott's family, enjoying beach and cousin time. We're watching a large tub of crabs and sand on the deck, caught by Caleb this afternoon; we're body surfing, we're enjoying great food cooked by a different couple every night. We're sweeping sand off the floor many times a day, applying sunscreen to each other's backs, doing Pilates together at 11 p.m., and making sausage and french toast for an hour in the morning. We have novels and magazines in random places all over the house, towels and bathing suits on the clothsline and hanging over the deck railing, and laundry going around the clock. We're watching movies curled up on Pa and Nanny's bed, making sand castles decorated with shells, and digging deep holes on the beach for the rising tide to fill. We're playing bocce, frisbee, and baseball on the beach. We're talking and laughing and singing the same songs over and over. We're going through cases of bottled water. We're hanging out in bathing suits all day.

It's great to be together.

Together

One more beach photo... I love this one. Ponytails flying, heading into the surf with Dad. Such a good thing!

Beach Discoveries

Seth discovers how to ride a skim board at the edge of the surf...

Madelyn discovers the tingly feeling a starfish makes on her hand with its tiny feelers...

And Alyssa and Gwen discover what Caleb has in his net and bucket!

A Classic

I just love this picture of Madelyn on the beach. It's such a natural, happy expression on her face.

The day after I took it, we lost the camera for a short time. I had left it on the railing of the little beach access ramp, where someone found it and turned it in to the snack bar. Scott found it there about an hour later. While I thought the camera was lost, I was sadder about losing this picture than I was about the camera itself!

Exhilarating!

Got to love running on the beach with your cousin! Come catch me, Aunt Sarah!

Fast forward 60 some years... do you see a couple of retirees enjoying their morning walk on the beach?!
Heading out into the surf!

Unpacking

It takes a long time, it seems. Tonight I have emptied several suitcases, but the largest one is still full. It waits for me at the bottom of the stairs, too heavy for me to carry. Scott will bring it when he comes up. Most of the clothes I've unpacked today were clean, a definite benefit, but they still needed to find their homes in various bedrooms and dressers. Suitcases aside, the house is in a state of general disaray... mail in stacks, bags of books to empty and put away, shoes scattered in the kitchen and front hall, and tonight I noticed there were even a few shells on the kitchen floor.

Going to the beach for a week is an event... and so is coming home.