The Beach

Today I did something I am ashamed of that I don’t do more of. I went to the beach. I dug out a hole in the sand (no, not 6’ deep), laid my beach towel down, and took a glorious late afternoon Labor Day nap.

Funny though, just before I dozed off, I was thinking of ideas for the September Carolina Dreamin’ lead article. The more I thought about it, I looked around and realized how beautiful my surroundings were and said, “I will write about the beach”.

Growing up in northern NJ, I am glad to say that I took advantage of traveling into Manhattan on a fairly regular basis. My father’s company had season tickets to the Knicks and at age 14, he allowed me and a buddy to travel into the city to see the Knicks, Rangers, Yankees, Mets, Jets or Giants games. I also saw a handful of Broadway shows, WTC’s, Empire State Building, Schaefer Music Festival in Central Park and more. But as close as it was, I never went to see the Statue of Liberty and/or a handful of other great venues near us. Isn’t that just amazing how we can live so near to a wonderful national treasure, state park, mountain range, blue ocean or historic city but rarely take advantage of it!?

So, if you live here or somewhere near a beach and or want to live close to a beach someday, here are some random practical uses for the beach:

• Buy white shirts and blouses along with khaki pants/shorts and have a family portrait taken
• Go Shelling!
• Take a nice walk with your dog or husband. Ok, leave the husband home!
• Plan a family picnic at the beach
• Go fishing from the pier (I do this more than golf now because I lose less golf balls fishing!)
• Learn to paint at the beach. Grab an easel, chair and a bottle of wine!
• Fly a kite. You don’t have to be a kid to have fun like a kid.
• Read that book you have been meaning to read for months
• Bring a bottle of Champagne to the beach and toast to a beautiful sunset, which you can do at Brunswick County beaches for 4-5 months per year
• Take a nap! The pounding waves put me to sleep within 5 minutes
• Bring the grandchildren down for a day of fun. Kids LOVE the beach
• Practice your sand trap shots!! 🙂
• Go Surf Casting for that big one!
• Learn to use a Paddle Board
• Body Surf like you did on the Jersey/NY/MA/MD shore as a kid
• Swim!!!!!!

So, my new pledge is this: I am grateful to live so close to several beautiful beaches and vow to take advantage of them more often. How about you – got anything near you that you really should take more advantage of??