Yesterday afternoon was hot, and not a little bit humid, and after some amount of debate about exactly which direction to send ourselves in, we decided to head for the beach. I sort of had visions of finding a tide pooling beach, because that is very much my thing, but instead, we landed on a sandy swimming beach about forty-five minutes from here.
The idea that a person might find a beach that is both sandy and warm enough to swim at is still something that I am getting used to. Being from Northern California, this is a bit of a novel idea. There are sandy beaches there, but none with ocean water that is warm enough that you would want to touch it on purpose. And, most of the beaches we visited often in California were rocky beaches better suited for trying to spot tiny creatures than to wading around anyway.
The big kid immediately knew what to do, and was hard at work on a sand castle within minutes of our arrival. Z. was less sure, and had to stand around and stare at everything for some time before he was ready to even think about touching the sand. It was pretty funny, actually.
The tide was high when we arrived, so there wasn't much to be found on the beach in the sea life department. But by the time we were getting ready to pack it up and head out the tide was receding, and some little bits of seaweed and the occasional shell were starting to appear here and there. I gathered a small handful of shells to bring home. I didn't think to take a picture of them before Mariam promptly took them and stashed them in the Lego bin she had brought along to carry various important items (such as a small looking glass and a stuffed walrus).
In all, a pretty good day. I think next time, I will totally go for it and bring a beach umbrella. Because I was a little jealous of the folks with beach umbrellas. They looked pretty comfortable. But I think next up is a tide pooling beach, because that is really the kind of beach going that I do best.
For those of you familiar with Massachusetts, New Hampshire, and Southern Maine: do you have a favorite beach to recommend?
