Sometimes my mind wanders. Sometimes during these daydreams I have small thoughts that I perseverate on for weeks, like the time last month when it occurred to me in a fraction of a moment that I
needed to find some
very specific magnets. Very specific, read: they exist only between my ears. Not at Michaels. Not at JoAnn Fabrics. Not even in the depths of the Amazon.com. I would describe them to you, but you'll never find them.
Sometimes the Holy Grail of daydreams is real, though.
I keep telling myself that I've taken
the last beach play photos of the year. But God bless Indian summer, the beach play lives on, even through the very last of September.
The third to last time we went to the beach, I posted a picture of my smallest beach bum on Facebook,
and begged my local friends to tell me where we could find a beach with fire pits. While the littles threw a thousand rocks into the river and searched for intact clam shells, I dreamed up a scheme to
never let the beach days end. The solution,
of course, is the beach with a campfire to keep you warm.
No one answered. Clearly my friends thought this was a rhetorical question, since I was sending my plea from the very beach where the fire pits exist. They tried to tell me they were just around the next sand dune, but I wasn't tuned in that day.
Fast forward a few weeks, when a wrong turn down the purple trail at the state park led us to the river's edge, though a bog, our head clouded with gnats, until the trees parted, our shoes filled with sand, and the golden hour sun shone on a stretch of shore lined with metal rings begging to host our next dinner.
Who says no to such a generous offer? No one. Er, not us, at least. Even if it means a wet tutu.
Being the inexperienced beach fire goers that we were, we made a few mistakes. I only bring these up so that you all can learn. Because you know, the next time you come to town,
we are SO taking you to our new favorite place.
1. Beach meals are sandy. If you cannot find a way to elevate your food off of the sand, expect your hot dog to have a little crunch.
2. Beach sunset campfire photography is tricky. Spend a little time Googling camera settings before you take five hundred shots with your aperture too wide and your exposure compensation under-compensated.
3. The bliss of watching a beautiful sunset can quickly give way to sheer panic at the realization that it is
now dark and you will have to hike back up the heavily wooded trail, past all sorts of nighttime nature,
without sunlight. First of all,
DUH. And second, you brought your phone, right? You're fine. As long as no one starts whispering
lionsandtigersandbearsohmy softly behind you. Kevin.
4. Take care of your shoes. Number four is really just an addendum to number three. If you were so jazzed at the sight of the sand and the water {you are my child, after all} when you reached the end of the hiking trail that you kicked off your sandals and peeled off your socks {why do you wear socks and sandals? that's all you, babe} with wild abandon, you may be hiking back, in the aforementioned
total darkness, in bare feet. No one is interested in wasting precious phone battery searching for your footwear.
{Found after sunrise the next day, by me, on staycation. God bless staycation}
How much luckier can a girl get?
