I think we need a bigger beach...

Peeling forehead?  Check.  Flip flops covered in sand that won't wash away?  Check.  More freckles than should be allowed on one face?  Check!  Sounds like someone went to the beach.  And that someone was me!  After over a year away from the waves, I finally got to go back to the sun, sand and surf. 


Months ago I got an email from my friend and "soul mate" (right, court?) Courtney about heading to her parents' place at the beach for a weekend.  I believe the words "you can't say no" appeared more than once.  Well, then, "yes" it is!  Not that my arm had to be twisted mind you.  So last Friday Courtney, her friend Stephanie (who is now my friend; Facebook says so) and I made our way to the place where the air is most humid. 

As soon as we got to Topsail (or some variation in the same two-mile radius--the name changed often and I couldn't keep up) on Friday and took our things inside, Stephanie brought out all her little friends.  Here she is to the right, friend in hand. 

I will spare everyone the details (this is a family blog, after all) but my old arch-nemesis Vodka showed up.  He charmed me with his hidden evils, cleverly disguised in a chocolate martini, and before I knew it I was making late night calls to everyone from Steven and my sister to Stephanie's husband.  Good ol' V and I have broken up.  Again.  For good this time.  I promise!! (PS--Thank you, Courtney, for making sure I didn't die.)

The next morning (when the sun was a bit too bright and my head was pounding in my ears) we hit the beach!  We spent time walking with our feet in the water and looking for various treasures that had washed up on the shore.  I need to tell you that I did this walking without a cover-up.  That's right, ladies and gentleman, I walked around in nothing but my bathing suit.  This is a major personal vicotory for me.  Clearly we did not document this in photos (i'm certainly not there yet!) but I promise it happened. 

After the beach we hit the pool where Courtney would enjoy the water.  She's got a thing about fish and seaweed and sharks and sand fiddlers and stingrays and anything that may attack, brush up against or swim next to her in the ocean.  The pool did have one danger that the ocean didn't.  Other. People's.  Kids.  We were brave and stuck it out for as long as we could.  But once "Marco Polo" headed to the deep end, it was done. 

Later that evening, while walking along the beach (in the opposite direction as before for some variety) we saw some pretty interesting things.  Things that confirmed Courtney's fears of the deep blue (or grayish green) sea.  First there was the sting ray.  On the shore.  Yeah, out of the water!  A fisherman had accidentally caught him while clearly trying to catch, well, fish. 

Here's how I think about wild animals.  If one hurts me while I'm in its habitat, well then, that's on me.  I know sting rays are in the ocean.  I take that chance when I go in the water.  And this sting ray did not choose to be on land.  So he's forgiven his trespass into people places.  Because clearly, we can go into their homes but under no circumstances should they intentionally come into ours.  (Yeah, yeah, not logical.  Umm...don't care.)

So the stingray didn't do anything wrong.  But this next guy?!  Just who the heck does he thing he is?!  Silly shark, land is for humans!!   Ok, this is where i draw the line.  Those things have lots of teeth.  Lots.  Of.  Teeth.  (PS--he was alive and someone picked him up and threw him back in the water.)

Granted I thought it was awesome to see a shark that close and not be in an aquarium.  I'm a bit of a shark nerd, ask my husband.  My favorite movie is Jaws (the first one.  Two was good, Three was ok and Four should have never been made!), I am an avid watcher of the Discovery Channel's Shark Week, I love to visit aquariums with shark displays and I drug my husband to the Museum of Natural Sciences to see the Megaladon exhibit.  When I was a child my parents took me to Sea World where I (accurately, mind you) named all the sharks in the tank.  Like I said, nerd.  But even this dork draws the line with sharks on land.  And yeah, he's small.  But it's just for now.  They get bigger.  Lots bigger.   

Including and despite the shark sighting, it was a wondeful weekend.  Just three girls (a stingray and a shark) hanging out.  Oh and what would a vacation (even small weekend ones) be without the obligatory self-portrait?  See below :)