Beaching!

Today was the first official day of beaching! I got up early to go get our spot of sand.  As luck would have it, the parking lot was practically  empty.  When one goes to the beach, one must be prepared, and as a former Boy Scout, I am generally always prepared.  This trip is full of overkill:  four umbrellas, five beach umbrellas, umbrella holders, cooler bags, sand spikes for cups, towels, a battery backup, and of course frozen margaritas!  The cart you see is a life saver in the parking lot, but a dead weight in the sand on the beach.

As you approach the beach you have an opportunity to coat yourself with spray on 30 suntan screen, 45 seconds for a dollar.  There were quite a few at the beach that should have spent the dollar!

After dragging that beach cart to the waters edge, I find that while the parking lot was empty, the front sand was quickly being taken up almost like the gold rush of 1849!

As you can see, you must be a professional beacher to get it right!

 First you screw in your umbrella spikes, then insert the umbrella.  Next you position the chairs so that the spousal unit will have full shade upon her arrival.  You must also have the cup spike located near the chair so that the cup or phone doesn't get sand on them.  Once positioned, you must take the traditional "toes in the sand" picture:

The beach is a great place for family quality time.  You have to be quick with the shot to get the pictures, and not

 a lot of mine captured what I wanted.

WeHere is a kid riding the biggest float I have ever seen at the beach.  Shortly after this picture the girl and the float went flying when a rogue wave caught them dead center.
Here, some grandparents were doing their best attempt at making their granddaughter a mermaid.

Granddad was just one example of the latest fad at the beach, back hair!  Chest hair was abundant as well.  Somebody please tell these people to either wax or shave, please.  Apparently, a lot of these guys must have thought that the hair had some type of UV protection at the beach.  Not!


This poor little girl almost lost her bucket.  Good old Dad got there just in the nick of time:

One little boy finally mastered catching a wave on his biggie board.  He would get in a rythym, then his sister would take command of the board.  Little not later, he was back at it again!

I was constantly having to clean my sunglasses to remove the blurry too that was accumulating on the lenses.  I'll net it was from all of the aerosol suntan lotion being sprayed into the air.  There was also a bit of an oil slick on the waters.  It wasn't from an oil spill.  Nope, it was from beach goers overdoing the sunscreen like this woman:

Everybody brought a variety of beach toys.  Plenty of buckets, shovels, and sand castle building tools.  The latest craze is a ball that you toss like you are skipping a rock.  Those balls hit the water just right and off the go!  Underwater and head cameras were also abundant.

The oddest thing to me was the number of miss matched two piece swim suits!  In a lot of cases there was no rhyme or reason for the pairing.  Must a been odd lot leftovers from last year.  The Fashionista police would have had a field day!

Here are pics of two of my sponsors. Love my insulated mug and new flippers!

All this on day one at the beach.  Can't wait till tomorrow!