I can’t believe it’s taken us this long to have a beach day. We LOVE the beach. The thing is, I was a little nervous to go to the beach without Matty, because here’s what you need to bring to the beach – bare minimum – with two kids:
• bag with 3 beach towels, sunblock, dry snacks, swimmies, sun hats, swim shirts
• bag of beach toys (buckets, shovels, strainer, etc)
• 3 beach chairs
• shade tent (or umbrella)
• cooler with sandwiches and cold snacks
• cooler with water bottles
We tend to carry this stuff in a large roll-y cart that gets significantly less roll-y on sand. Because it’s also virtually impossible to leave the house with two small children before 9:30 am, we didn’t get to the beach until a little after 10:30, which means we had to park in the auxiliary lot, an extra 500 yards away (still $20 though).  The important part is that we made it, and it was awesome.

We went to Wingaersheek (thanks, local friends who weighed in). The water was absolutely perfect, the flies were minimal, and the low tide created an awesome little sand bar and shallows area that the kids loved playing in.

Remember that “great” tent? Here’s the advice Matty gave me for folding it up: “one thumb up, one thumb down.” Here’s my review of folding that goddamn tent: two thumbs wayyyyy down. After about 10 minutes of watching me wrestle that thing, the family camped next to us took a break from laughing at me to try to help. The mother and teen daughter jumped in, and the three of us managed to somehow jam it back into its tiny carrying case. The woman jerry-rigged it shut and I prayed it wouldn’t pop open in the trunk. Matty, I’m sorry, but this bad boy will be waiting for you on the lawn.

Aside from the Tent Incident and the Roll-y Cart Incident, I did it! We’ll be back, beach, hopefully next time with some reinforcements.