Friday Favorites: The Beach

Wrightsville Beach, NC

Being born and raised in states on the Atlantic coast, I have a love for the beach and the ocean. A lot of times that love has to lie dormant, since I now live in a land-locked state, but whenever I get a chance to get to the coast, it all comes back to me.

A couple of weeks ago when I was on the youth mission trip to North Carolina, we had the opportunity to have a beach day and it was one of the highlights of my week (and probably my summer). There was a heat advisory that day for most of the country, and the temperature that day at the beach was near 100. But even just a few yards closer to the water from where we set up our pavilion and towels, the breeze and the water made it feel 10 degrees cooler.

The most refreshing part was being in the ocean, jumping the waves. In the northeast, the water stays cooler until later in the summer, but in North Carolina that day, the water was perfect. I quickly remembered the days of being at the beach with my family when I was growing up and had sweet memories of my dad teaching me to jump the waves and swimming for hours with me and my sister in the ocean.

Now, in the interest of full disclosure, I have to be honest and say that while I love the beach and the ocean, I'm not a big fan of sand. I know that sounds crazy, but for me, the whole beach/ocean experience is worth a little (OK, sometimes a lot) of discomfort from having sand in your towel, walking on hot sand and finding sand in your bag when you get back to your land-locked state.

I am hoping to get some extended time at the beach in the next year or so. I really want to have the fun of watching Erica and Mary Lane experience the beach and the ocean for the first time and I'd love to have a big family vacation to celebrate Daniel's high school graduation year. We'll see . . .