Life's a Beach

I'm sitting out on the balcony of the condo in my p.j.'s at almost 11PM. The beach is lit with the beams of flashlights reflecting off the wet low tide sand. The waves are crashing. Don't cha wish you were here?

My first thought after putting my foot in the water yesterday was, I'm never coming back in June. The water's too cold. Silly me. The water is wonderful. Probably 5 degrees or so cooler than it usually is. It's so much warmer than the MD beaches. Close to 80 degrees is plenty warm enough. It's been in the 90's the last few days. Hot. Lots of time in the water. Tomorrow I buy a raft so I can float, although I did find that it's easy to float on my own. Arms spread wide, chin up, and buoyant. I'm so glad that I have the ability to easily amuse myself :)

The drive from Smithfield to Myrtle Beach yesterday was an easy one. We got to the condo about 2 hours early and they let us in. We were very gracious and charming (if I must say so myself) and so were they :) My sister arrived a few hours later and we went to Friday's for dinner. Coupons, you know? We thought to go to Walmart to grocery shop but remembered from past years that they're wiped clean on check-in day. We went first thing this morning and again, lots of empty shelves. We did pick up the wine my mom wanted at $2.97 a bottle. I had some while cooking dinner. Not bad at all.

My sister and I hung out at the beach all day. Em came for a while. It was windy, and I had to keep anchoring my umbrella and holding on to it. One time as I was coming out of the water it was tumbling end-over-end down the beach till someone stopped it. Luckily no one was impaled. Unfortunately, this little metal piece that's supposed to be flush protruded, making it impossible to collapse the umbrella. A nice man got a wrench and pushed it back in, but when it was time to pack up, it was out again and there was no closing the umbrella. My good 6' SPF 50 umbrella. So, I put it in the trash can. It kind of reminded me of one of those umbrellas you put in a drink.


A while later, I happened to turn around and the umbrella was gone. I figured the wind caught it and it rolled down the beach. It wasn't till I got to our balcony that I saw the umbrella being used, without the rest of the pole that was laying by the trashcan. Then I watched the couple trying to figure out how to fold it up.





They threw it into the protected dunes! I guess they're hoping it's there tomorrow so they can use it again. Without the bottom part of the pole, it only stands about 2' above the sand. Too funny. I'm heading to Sam's Club in the morning to get a new umbrella. I can't do the beach without one.

Emily and her cousin have been getting along great. Same with my sister and me, Emily and me, etc. We've all been helping out with my mom. I got her all set up at the outdoor pool today. Scooter, towel, book, chair, water. I made sure she was in the shade and could get in and out of the water by herself. Every once in a while one of us would go by the pool to say hi. I brought her lunch. About 5:30 I said to my sister, I wonder what Mom's doing. I called the condo and asked if she was there. Nope. Uh oh. I went to the pool. There was poor mom. She said, I tried to call you so many times. I've wanted to go upstairs for so long but I've been stuck here. Boy did I feel bad. I said, remember last year Mom? All you had to do was get on your scooter and take the elevator up. She forgot. She got on the scooter, put her stuff in the basket and off she went. I went with her, just to see she could do it on her own. Tomorrow we'll take turns staying with her instead of leaving her by herself. Lesson learned.


I cooked quesadillas for dinner. They were just OK but easy is what beach week is all about. Afterward we went to a place called Barefoot Landing to walk around. It's lots of shops with boardwalks over the inter-coastal waterway. Emily and I walked anywhere she wanted to go. We only bought postcards! My sister, nephew and mom hung out in the rocking chairs that are outside all the shops, and people-watched. It was a good outing. The night-time weather has been delightful. I hate to come in off the balcony, but Emily's been patiently waiting for her turn, and I'm sharing. TTYS :)