I Love That Dirty Water….
Today was my Thursday “off”: me trying to cram a week’s worth of errands, exercise, and housework into one day. Not even one whole day, actually. Everything has to fit into the hours before two-thirty p.m., when I pick the kids up at their schools… since work’s been a bit of a bummer lately, I wanted to do something fun this afternoon.
The morning was a blur of: kids’ school drop-off, animal shelter morning cat duties, hardware store gardening stuff run, my q6 weeks waxing appointment, high-intensity workout at the gym, bank machine, post office, and then, an hour meeting with our child psychologist. Somewhere in there, I logged into work.
Whew! Two-thirty and…
Hubby went to pick up Babyboy so they could swing by the DPW and pick up our new composter. This is a story in and of itself; suffice to say, Babyboy is really into composting. He’s been looking forward to picking this thing up since last week when I ordered it (our town sells them wholesale). So, off they went.
I picked up Babygirl, and I asked her what she’d like to do on this warm and sunny afternoon.
“I want to go to the beach!” she exclaimed. “I want to look for sea shells!”
And so, we had a plan.
We’re very lucky to live a seven minutes’ drive from a wonderful beach. It’s about a two-mile stretch of gravelly New England coast on an urban bay, and features a little bit of everything: a paved walking and running path, shaded benches, two nice playgrounds, several classic fried clams shacks and ice cream stands, and even some protected wetlands. There are lovely views of our fair city in the distance.
But, I wouldn’t put my face in that water, if I were you. Feet, fine.
Babygirl took off her shoes and ran to the shallow water’s edge, kicking up spray, squealing. We saw horseshoe crabs and hermit crabs and seagulls and loons. We collected all manner of shells: oyster, clam, mussel, snail… Babygirl was thrilled. The sun was shining hot, there were very few folks around, and Babygirl ran and twirled and splashed and hammed it up for the camera.
Yeah, I love that dirty water….