The original plan was to take the kids to a park before lunch and then to the beach after lunch. I slept in until about 10 and we didn't end up leaving for the beach until closer to 2pm. Evan and Nathan spent most of the morning watching humorous Zelda videos on You Tube.
Here in Michigan there are laws against loitering. You can be as lazy as you want to be in your own home and no one is going to arrest you unless you become public health concern. Which means you have chosen a life style that well exceeds the parameters of laziness. Anyway, you can be arrested and charged with a fine for loitering, or you can pay an entrance fee at a State Park and loiter all you want.
The people who were at Holland State Park today were very creative with their loitering styles. Some set up tent like enclosures to keep the heat of the sun off of them, most of the people were loitering under beach umbrellas, and the rest of us were lying on blankets or towels on the sand.
The sand was very hot and inflicted pain on the delicate naked feet. Although, my feet aren't delicate the sand still hurt like a, well, it hurt a lot. Lake Michigan was between 69-70 degrees colder than yesterday, but very refreshing from the hot air and sun. Adam didn't even swim but the three of us did and we had a great time.
On the way to the beach, I stopped at the Wesco station (I wish I got paid to mention Wesco) and got 5 gallons of gas, four bottles of water and three bags of snacks, one for each of the boys who picked out their own snack. I knew we were going to be there a while, and water would be essential to have. There were given a $1 limit, because money is tight here.
Adam picked out a bag of Jay's Pretzels which he pointed out to me is now owned by the Snyder's of Hanover. Evan got a bag sunflower seeds, and Nathan got Flaming Hot Cheetos.
I just got water. After we swam for a while we went back to the beach blanket. The kids ate their snacks, except for Adam who ate all his pretzels while we were waiting to get into the State Park.
While we were waiting to get in, the line of cars being quite long, I saw many cars parked on the side of the road where No Parking signs are clearly posted. Behind all the cars was a Deputy Sheriff SUV with the lights flashing, apparently writing parking tickets. As we made our way to the beach blanket, I heard one guy say, "I can't believe I got a $50 parking ticket."
I had to laugh to myself.
All summer long we used a bottle of spray sunscreen. It has kept us from getting sunburned even at Michigan's Adventure Water park. Today, it was used up and I threw it away when we got home. I knew it was low and brought a backup sunscreen lotion. I did not want today to be the day we get sunburned.
After we had our water and snacks. I mooched some Cheetos and sunflower seeds from Nathan and Evan respectively. They were complaining that their water wasn't as cold as it was when it was purchased at Wesco (another unpaid plug). So, they dumped out the water and headed for the drinking fountain by the pavilion.
Sand on a beach, who would have thought that going to a beach means that you would get sand on your feet and legs? Well, there I was trying to fill these plastic water bottles with water from the drinking fountain. With full water pressure it wasn't too difficult, but when the faucet was being used to clean sand off of feet and legs of OCD families the water pressure was very low. While I was there attempting fill these water bottles, five families were washing of sand. It is my sincere opinion that if you have a problem with sand, don't go the beach.
My rusty Chevy Blazer has sand on the seats and the floor. Friday, I am vacuuming out the truck. I didn't care about the sand. It doesn't bother me. If I were so concerned about having sand in the Blazer, I wouldn't take the boys to the beach. I felt sorry for the little boy whose mom had pulled down his shorts and was cleaning his bare bottom by the faucet. Don't these people have showers at home? I was persistent and got our bottles filled, expect mine was 3/4 full.
The technique I used was to fill my bottle as full as I could and then pour the water into one of the other bottles, that way, Evan and Nathan had full water bottles. Nathan never drank his. He left it on the blanket and it got warm again. Right now it is in the refrigerator.
On the way to the drinking fountain, we saw Adam walking toward us from the pavilion. He said he was bored and wanted to go home. Our plan was to walk on the pier and then swim again. The look Adam gave me told me that he was really feeling bad that he even came along with us. So, I gave him the keys to the Blazer so that he could open the windows, relax and wait for us.
We walked through the scorching sand to the pier and walked to the end of the pier where many High School/College students were jumping in the water. Nathan said he wanted to jump in, but then changed his mind. I held his hand and was going to jump in with him but he backed away. I told him, "if you want to jump in, I will jump in with you. Don't feel you have to, but if you want to, we should." He said when he is older. So, that has become next year's goal.
We got back to the blanket, again, and all of us were hot and feeling a little tired. Evan was so hot and tired that he didn't even want to go back in Lake Michigan. I talked him into going in one more time, telling him that the Lake is refreshing and he will feel better. I walked with to the water and stayed with him past the sand bar where he lunged forward started swimming. He instantly was invigorated and was smiling again.
I said to him, "five minutes ago you didn't want to leave the blanket and no look how much better you feel." We swam, played tag and splashed each other for awhile and then Evan was tired and wanted to go home. He went back to the blanket to play games on my Trac Phone and Nathan started throwing wet sand at me.
At one point, I grabbed his hand to stop him and his nose got bumped and it started bleeding. I had him lie back in the water as I tried to stop the bleeding. It took sometime but it finally slowed down and we got back to the blanket, gathered everything together and headed for the Blazer.
Adam says he likes to travel light at the beach. Getting him to take a small Walkie Talkie with him as he walked around by himself was like pulling teeth. He took it with him. I tried calling him as we headed to the Blazer but he didn't answer. He told me that the rechargeable battery way low so he turned it off. What was the point?
I tried calling Lori on my Trac Phone to tell her that we were leaving and I couldn't get a signal, not even standing on a sand dune. I gave up after 7 minuets of trying to call her. If it weren't for the digital clock on the Trac Phone, I would be asking, what was the point?
We got home. I husked corn, grilled steak and after dinner, I gave Nathan a shower. It was a good day and a good summer vacation.
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