I promised myself I would try to get to the beach at least once a week this summer. Some summers we haven't gone at all and before you know it the summer's over. When I was young (way back when :) ) and school let out for summer break, it seemed that summer stretched out before us forever. Day after day of hanging around, stretched out on lawn chairs reading comics and drinking colas. We had more summer than we knew what to do with and by mid-August we were bored. Fast forward to now and if I don't schedule it in, I'll miss summer like I do most years. So it's off to the beach every week and force myself to slow down enough to enjoy the season.

Week One - Beach One:
New River Beach

This is a lovely sandy beach about 30 minutes drive from my home. It's an ocean beach so we have to check the tide tables before heading out to make sure there'll be enough beach to sit on when we get there. The sand is soft and fine, not like some of the others around here, but the water is bone-numbing cold. People swim here - I have no idea how they manage not to get hypothermia. Aliya went for a swim - but not me. I got my feet wet up to the ankles and then the cold was too brutal so I gave up and went back to lay down on the hot sand. Nothing better to bake the cold out of you. Yes, of course I have a cold. A nasty drippy head cold but I wasn't going to waste 27 degrees of hot sunny weather at home inside. We had about 4 hours of beach until the tide came up and by then it was time to head home anyway. Nothing like the ocean to mellow a person out. We'll have to try and get back here again.