Florida Part 2: The Beach

On Monday and Tuesday, Bruce was busy working (gasp!), so I had to find something to do with Sammy, Riley, and Zeke all day. According to them, they would have been happy watching cartoons on cable TV all day long (they got a few hours in every day, at least). However, I noticed that after several shows, they would get cranky, ornery, and whiny. Horrible. So both mornings we packed a lunch, slathered up with sunscreen, and headed for the beach.


Clearwater Beach is such a lovely place that it was worth the 45-minute drive to get there. The sand is soft and bright white, made of crushed seashells from the Gulf of Mexico. Close to the waves you can see the shells at various stages of getting crushed into sand. Riley loved scooping up shovelfuls of shell bits to show me. Sammy never found a full sand dollar, but was happy collecting all the sand dollar chunks he could find. Zeke was afraid of the waves the first day, but had a blast splashing in them the second day; he needed a hand to hold on because the undertow was too strong for his little legs to keep him standing.


The boys' very favorite thing at the beach was my least favorite: hundreds (thousands?) of seagulls who know just how to get their lunch from tourists. On our first day, I noticed how hundreds of birds swarmed near us as soon as they saw sandwiches come out of the plastic grocery bag. I was carefully guarding the bag, but apparently not holding the sandwich in my hand tight enough. After I'd eaten about half, I was going in for another bite when a bird swooped in from behind and grabbed the whole thing right out of my hands! It was shared by 10 birds, and was gone in about 4 seconds.


The boys thought this was hilarious, but took it as a sign that Mom needed protection. Sammy and Riley began chasing seagulls away, one by one. I thought their efforts were futile, but after about 10 minutes of running around yelling, our section of beach was completely clear! They were so proud of themselves, and all our beach-neighbors got a good chuckle from watching. So on Tuesday, they planned all morning on how they could take shifts, so someone could "protect" us while others were eating. Unfortunately, just before our lunch, a lady close by was purposely feeding the seagulls! Aiding and abetting the enemy! Needless to say, the birds were less easily discouraged, but Sammy and Riley still did a great job, and no more food was stolen.


So we collected tons of broken sand dollar bits, a few cool seashells, and a lot of sand in our clothes. Sammy and Riley smashed an oyster in hopes of finding a pearl, but ended up just covering themselves and Zeke with oyster guts. We ended each day with time on a really great playground at the beach, and even got some ice cream. What a fabulous place to let the boys explore, play, and have fun while using their own creativity and intelligence. I love the way their minds work and the great games they come up with. I really love the beach and miss living close to one. I think we'll have to visit beaches more often...