(Sunday Paper, Year VII, Issue 27)

On Wednesday I took the girls to the beach.

This wouldn’t be notable except for the fact that it was unusual in a couple of ways.

A quick recap (I believe I’ve written about this before in some way so I won’t spend too much time on it):

When I was younger I didn’t love going to the beach.

Wasn’t a fan of the sand everywhere, love/hate relationship with the salt water and rough waves, and I just preferred the pool.

But now, I like the beach.

And after Wednesday, I like it even better.

One of the unusual things about Wednesday is that it was not part of a bigger vacation.

That’s the thing about most beach trips for us - it’s when we are already on the Cape or out on Long Island that we make a beach trip happen.

But when school ended I was thinking that I’d like to make an effort to give the girls something to look forward to on summer days so I told them we would go to the beach this week at one point. (Wednesday seemed to be the best day for it for a number of reasons.)

It worked out perfectly. If we had planned for perfect weather or the timing to work out the way it did or anything it couldn’t have worked out any better than we did.

The other unusual thing is that I took the girls by myself.

In the other rare instances that we’ve tried a beach day where we weren’t already on vacation somewhere (even on vacation, actually), it’s always been Kathy and I together. And once or twice Kathy and the girls without me.

But this time, it was me with the girls - and it was great! Mostly because they’re all at an age right now where they can carry their own belongings and they don’t need my constant attention to entertain them on the sand or in the water…and I can even run to the bathroom and leave them if I have to.

The beach experience has transformed a little bit for us here.

The beach I like going to is on the Cape. It’s almost a couple of hours to drive to, but I don’t mind. It’s what I know, it’s what I’m comfortable with, and it’s what I like.

We were on the road by 8, back by 5, with a solid few hours on the beach in between.

In the morning the water was calm - in the afternoon the wind and waves picked up to their usual Cape Cod windiness, but we were still able to enjoy a couple of swims and some time out in the sun.

It was also pre-July 1, so the Cape wasn’t packed…the sun wasn’t terribly hot, and the sand wasn’t burning our feet.

Everything was really perfect.

It’s something I definitely want to do again this summer…but I doubt another trip will go as well as this one.

What I’ve Been Enjoying

Here’s the weekly roundup of albums I’ve listened to and movies I’ve watched:

“Purple Rain” - Prince
“FOUR” - One Direction
“Genesis” - Genesis
“Let It Bleed” - The Rolling Stones
Dr. No
You’ve Got Mail
Christopher Robin

Also, for what it’s worth - through July 2nd we’re at a total of 150 (86 albums, 64 movies) - so not quite at a pace to hit 365…though there’s really no total number goal here.

Notes

*I guess I’ll break down for you why Wednesday ended up being the best beach day for us: I was supposed to have jury duty on Tuesday - and I needed to call and figure out if I was going on Monday. So I figured let’s at least think about Wednesday after all that is (hopefully) done.

Kathy works in the office on Thursday, so I didn’t want to leave Tate alone, and I wanted to avoid the Friday, July 1st holiday weekend likely Cape crowd. So Wednesday it was.

And then on top of it all I called on Monday and had no jury duty. So maybe I’ll be called again in less than a year because of that…but for this week, it worked out pretty well.

*I guess it goes without saying…but I’ll say it anyway: While the girls have summer vacation and the flexibility to go to beach on a Wednesday during the work week (no jobs for any of them….yet), I do still have work. But the beauty of my work right now is that it is flexible enough that I can clear a day if I have to….whether that be for jury duty (thumbs down) or taking the girls to the beach (smiley face).

*I don’t know why Facebook has been doing the weird thing where it just posts my Sunday Paper link without any image preview…but thanks for clicking on through to those of you who keep coming back.

*And a reminder that you can Like/Follow my social media at the buttons below. Thanks!