life's a beach

MA '09 ben and me

Ben and I are beach people. We just are. I'm not sure where this came from on my side as I was raised on the Long Island Sound and no one in my family is a big beacher. My grandma likes to get breakfast and sit on the beach with a sweater on cool mornings. My mom likes her pool club that has the beach behind it. But, I'm not sure I can remember going to be a beach with either of my parents (maybe with my mom when i was a toddler). 

Cape Cod Aug '09 with my cousins

But, both Ben and I have always loved everything about the beach. He jogs, swims so far out he looks like a tiny dot, and maybe sits still for five minutes tops. I read and play in the water or talk with friends. Maybe it's because we're both from New England where a lot of the culture has to do with the ocean. In Boston, our summer weekends were spent at the beach and we like to get up as early as possible and stay as late as possible.

NH July '10

Even before we moved to New Orleans one of the first things we asked was where the best beaches are. No one had a good answer. What we heard was that we could drive to Florida for a weekend to experience the beach there. Nola is right on the Mississippi River and the Pontchtrain but, those ain't beachin places. A friend of my uncles even invited us to use his Florida beach house whenever we wanted! So, we took to the internet for a beach search. I asked on the Yelp community. We googled. Finally, we got in the car and just drove. What we found was that by driving 90minutes we could find the ocean but the intense heat and the oil spill meant that we were the only people out there. In the middle of July and August it was so hot that after 45minutes stuck outside in the sun my vision got blurry, I saw black dots, and no amount of ice or ice-water helped. This was not the beach we love. 

Now that it is almost the end of September and we've been southerners for almost three months we have found where to go for the beach. We continue to drive the 90minute trip to Mississippi and stop when we see sand. 

I must say, it's not the North. The first time we went there were stingrays spawning so you couldn't go in the water without the fear of being stuck with one of their sharp tails. The next time we were told that sharks will come up to the shore and when the mud from the bottom is kicked up they can't see and will bite your legs. This past weekend Ben kicked a jellyfish and got stung while swimming. He chose not to tell me this until the night when we were safely at home and it was still stinging. I don't go in the water here. There are no waves because some islands break them. The water is brown looking- maybe it's the oil? And last but not least the water is hot. Like as hot as my grandparents' hot tub after its been running a minute. But, it's a beach. I've learned that even in September it is too hot to sit on the beach in Mississippi for too long, loads of ice are necessary, and you must hydrate even when you don't want to. It's not perfect, but it will have to do until we can visit my grandparents and uncle in Florida or head back up to the North. 

For all of you up there in NH and MA and CT, here's some photos of our last Mississippi beach trip. 

pelican

looks like the bird is on the roof

little friend