The kids go back to school in one week, and we find ourselves making some heroic efforts to make the most of the summer holidays before they are over. The whole lot of us went to the beach yesterday, including a friend for each girl, and a metric ton of stuff to sustain us for the duration. I'm not sure why we pack as though we are Lewis and Clark and will be out of touch for God knows how long, but we do. I love going to the beach, and we are lucky enough to live surrounded by the Great Lakes, and have access to any number of terrific beaches within an hour or so's drive. There are beaches with good sand, beaches with good waves, beaches with hills and dunes, beaches that are shallow and warm, and beaches where they serve fries right on the beach.
There were a few years there when my kids were younger, and I also babysat a friend's kids for the summer. Trying to find an activity that was cheap and would keep everyone occupied for the day wasn't always easy, but a day at the beach fit the bill nicely. Once summer, Big Liver Girl and I made it our goal to visit as many beaches a possible over the summer...I think we only got to about 4 or 5, but we liked those ones so much we just kept going back to them. I remember one day when, between us, we had 10 happy, dirty, soggy kids at the beach. (We had gone to visit another friend at her cottage, and she had two kids and was pregnant with #3. As the crowd of us trooped across the road to the water, her husband remarked that he was ready for his Utah licence plate now.) It was a good day.
There were a few years there when my kids were younger, and I also babysat a friend's kids for the summer. Trying to find an activity that was cheap and would keep everyone occupied for the day wasn't always easy, but a day at the beach fit the bill nicely. Once summer, Big Liver Girl and I made it our goal to visit as many beaches a possible over the summer...I think we only got to about 4 or 5, but we liked those ones so much we just kept going back to them. I remember one day when, between us, we had 10 happy, dirty, soggy kids at the beach. (We had gone to visit another friend at her cottage, and she had two kids and was pregnant with #3. As the crowd of us trooped across the road to the water, her husband remarked that he was ready for his Utah licence plate now.) It was a good day.
When some young cousins of mine came here from Ireland a number of years ago, they were quite astonished to see a Great Lake; a lake where you couldn't see the other side of it was altogether new to them. "It's like a sea you can drink!" they exclaimed, the novelty of fresh water vs. salt water being too good to pass up. (Just so you know, I did tell them that fresh water and clean water are two very different things, and unless they wanted to spend the remainder of their holiday in Canada in the gastrointestinal ward, they should stop drinking the lake right now.)
Yesterday was cloudy and windy for the most part, and we forgot entirely to put on sunscreen. We have paid dearly for our folly, since Thing 1 and I have fish-belly-white, Irish skin that was never, ever designed to be exposed to daylight ever. Thing 2 and The Mister fare a little better, but not much. Luckily our guests appear to have some Mediterranean DNA and got off easy. The Loudshoes family all look parboiled today. Totally worth it, though, for one last day at the beach.
1 comment:
started this comment on your facebook wall, but your day was sucha stark contrast to mine, that its worthy of a mention.
I packed up my crew loaded the van with one tiny knapsack full of lunch for five and drove through considerable traffic and construction with french signs indicating last minute detours and direction changes... to an island not unlike Toronto Island in Montreal.
There we lined up to park in a herd for an hour, walked for ages to get to the park ($15)to stand in line for 45 minutes for hte pure pleasure of dropping $200 for my family to enjoy the french version of Canada's Wonderland. There we stood in line for almost an hour for the first rollercoaster and slightly less for each of the other five rides we tackled.
That said, it was a clean, pretty, well set up park. We ate our delicious lunch and snacked all day and watched the sunset on a harrowing drive back through MOntreal (without directions).
and best of all no one threw up.
(but it was no day at the beach)
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