What's That Crashing Sound I Hear?

 Zaya and Mim finally got their first glimpse of the beach on Sunday evening. They were very enthusiastic. They quickly discovered that the term salt-water is not given lightly, and that waves in an ocean are very different from "waves" on the lake. Daddy stayed close at hand while they found their sea-legs.

Soon they were running in and out of the water like old pros.

 Zaya spent hours just diving and floating, looking for fish and shells and whatever other bizarre underwater creatures he may have imagined to fill in the gaps.

There was much burying in the sand, of course, because you can't come to the beach and not have a parent bury you in the sand.

  There were even jellyfish, which didn't get anyone until day 3. I was afraid they would scare the kids away from the water, but they came back the next day with just as much excitement, so I think my tactic of telling them they could use it as an impressive beach story worked. (You can tell your friends you've been stung by jellyfish! Isn't that cool!)

At the end of every day, we loaded the kids up with beach gear and either walked the half-mile back to our cabin, or waited for the tram, if the time was right.

In some ways, riding the tram back and forth from our cabin to the beach was just as exciting, but I'm fine with that. As long as memories were created in one way or another, I figure we were successful.