Yesterday I went to the beach. Sort of. I almost forgot about the plans. When the phone rang yesterday morning & I saw it was my sister calling, I picked up the phone and said, “It’s a good thing you called.” In spite of having written it down on my calendar, I had totally forgotten that I was supposed to be driving out to her house and then to Lido Beach.
My nephew attends Camp Anchor during the summer and yesterday was the senior campers’ talent show. It was a hot, sticky, muggy day and since we didn’t want to be sitting out there too long, we didn’t get there until about 15 minutes before the show was supposed to start. That meant going into the further parking lot. The much further one. Before grabbing the beach chairs and our little coolers with cold water and walking the 134 miles to the camp, I made sure we could find the car after the show was over. “Okay, it’s right near the second green mushroom.”
Don’t all beaches have mushrooms?
Getting there late also meant sitting way in the back but that was okay. We just figured we’d stand when my nephew’s group was on so we could see him. We plopped down into our beach chairs and cooked in the sun. Let me state here that I am not a beach person. I love everything about the ocean – the sound of the waves, the smell of the salt air, the way the ocean looks but I hate the concept of ‘going to the beach.’ That generally means sitting on the sand all day, trying not to burn. No thank you. Give me the beach at dusk or during the cooler weather.
Getting back to our story, so there we were sitting in the hot sun, trying not to sip too much water because that would require a trip to the disgusting bathrooms, and waiting for the show to start. My nephew’s group comes out. My sister points him out to me. “Where? I don’t see him.” (Yes, I am way overdue to get to the eye doctor.) Even with the zoom lens, I have no clue where my nephew is. Then Janet, who obviously has eyes like Superman, not only can see her son, but can see he is upset so she goes off to see what’s wrong.
Meantime, I’m still squinting through my camera lens, trying to figure out what’s going on. The campers do their little act. I think I see my nephew up there. After the act is over, they both come walking over to me. “He bailed on the show,” Janet tells me.
“He did? That wasn’t him up there?” Yep, Way overdue for an eye exam.
I’ve never seen a giant green mushroom before. If we could stuff and deep fry that baby we could all eat for months.
I love everything beach..the sand, the water, the sounds, the shells. I think that comes from living at least 8 hours from a beach. I only get a chance to go every so many years and I think its like childbirth, the bad parts (sand in the bathing suit) seems not so bad.
I love the ocean. Or a big lake. Or just about any pretty body of water. If I was rich, I would live in a house on the beach. Just as long as I don’t have to sit on the sand. The only place I like sand is under my feet while I’m walking on it. Well except when the sand is really, really hot and it’s like you’re walking on hot coals.
I know when we go to the beach there is always a space of about 30 feet between the stairs at the bottom of our rental house and the part of the sand that isn’t too hot to walk on. The choices are to either run fast or wear flip flops.
I just got home which is why I did not enter this conversation at a decent time because here is my thought. When I read Katy’s idea of stuffing and deep frying the giant green mushroom, my thought was–PERFECT ACCOMPANIMENT to the two-foot-wide calamari. And the vat of horseradish sauce to dip the fried mushrooms in could go right next to the vat of marinara for the calamari. SET ‘EM UP–APPETIZERS FOR EVERYBODY
I hope I didn’t offend you earlier…all of a sudden you stopped “playing.” Wait a minute–offend you? Aw, it would take a lot more than that, right?
Whoa–SIX little kids? I’ll bet you ARE tired! I personally spent a few hours making sure that 40 starving children in Haiti and some other lovely place will eat for a year. I’m tired too!
We got a group of family members and friends together and all trooped over to “Feed My Starving Children” to volunteer. And we had a fun time, but I am tired!!! All of that dumping a cup of rice into a bag with the chicken seasoning, dehydrated veggies and soy just wore me right out