ocean – The Lucky Puppy

A lifetime milestone was reached while on vacation this Summer. Abby led the family to a day at the beach. This allowed me the opportunity to swim in the ocean. Not a small accomplishment for someone who grew up about a mile from the beach in California. You see, it has been a recent event that I really started swimming for fun. Up until now I did “survival swimming”. If the life boat wasn’t too far away, I could make it. If it was more than 100 yards, that would be me waving good-bye to loved ones.

Read this to see why it took so long for me to have fun in deep water.

So we all piled into cars and it was off to the Isle of Palms, South Carolina. A beautiful stretch beach front, just perfect for beach combing and weddings. As was said before, I lived for years by the ocean and this was the first time I was fully equipped and motivated to go swimming.

As we marched to the surf, I noticed a couple of signs.

csntsaySHARKatthebeach — It seems you can't mention "SHARK!" at the beach.

If you decide to come to the beach ill equipped, just about everything can be rented. I also counted six swim suit shops on the way to the parking lot.

oddgame — Expensive PBJ's and other stuff.

The beach opened at 0900 and by the time we got there at 1030 the beach was getting a teeny bit crowded. Undeterred, Abby led us to as nice spot where we planted our flag (ummm….I mean umbrella). We really need a family flag.

Umbrella properly planted, check. Pictures of beach, check. Copious amounts of sunblock slathered on everyone, um….check. It’s time to get wet and sandy….

dad_and_daughter — We go further and further out.

The water was warm as we went to sea, step by step. By the third trip, we were past the breakers and floating in the rollers. It was then that Abby reprized her life guard persona and screamed for us to get back to her tut suite. Edited for our PG-13 website she said “Pool swimming and swimming in the ocean takes two very different skill sets! “DO NOT GO OUT THAT FAR AGAIN!”

At that point we called it off for lunch. A nice picnic lunch ala Cafe Abby sans the bologna that Dad bogarted from the fridge the day before. But hey, turkey is healthy for you. While lunching, the wind blew some Doritos to the sand which alerted a squadron of sea gulls. As they swarmed in I remembered that they are nothing more than sea going pigeons (aka airborne rats).

seagoing_rats — Artsy, Fartsy Picture of the Seagoing Rats.

After the Nice Lunch, we frolicked in the surf some more while Abby manned the Awesome Black Camera (ABC) for more Artsy, Fartsy pictures that turned out really, really nice. Way to go ABBY!!