A Day at Hampton Beach

 I recently spent a day at Hampton Beach with a friend and her family. It was my first time there, which may be surprising since I live in NH and love being at the ocean. We left her house around 8:30 am. After nearly three hours of driving, we finally got our first glimpse of Hampton beach. I smiled and shouted hooray! We’re almost there!

Parking was not too difficult, it cost ten dollars for the day.

We unloaded and found a place on the sand, not far from the beach, near lifeguard chair 11.

Before the blanket and items were set out the kids were ready to run to the water. We applied sunscreen on the kids; I considered putting on sunscreen but decided to take my chances in hopes of getting some color since it was probably the last chance of sitting in the warm sun before fall set in.

Then they all ran down to the water. I wanted to run, too, but tried to act cool and moseyed down with the smaller children, who were hooting and hollering in excitement!  Seagulls and voices of happy beach goers added to the cacophony.

The waves and salty air welcomed me.When my feet reached the water i was prepared for chilly water but it was not too frigid. It was warmer than anticipated, so i strode out to nearly my knees.

The wind caused waves to blow salty water over me.There was an impending storm for the next day and the yellow flag by the lifeguard chair indicated rip tides.As I stood by the shore feeling the surf scoop sand away from my feet,  it reminded me of how life can be unpredictable and you could lose your footing if not cautious. 

 I watched the kids play as the waves pushed them farther away from where i stood. i kept waving for them to get closer to where i was but they were often too busy to even look up at me.

Yelling their name was almost useless because the wind and waves were too loud.

There were sailboats in the distance and I wondered how they were faring in the tumultuous wind.

Since my friends were watching the kids, I decided to go back to the blanket to relax.

I sat on my low beach chair and dug my feet in the sand, smiled and felt happy and at peace. :)

I later realized how much the wind and sun reddened my skin and should have put on sunscreen after all..

We all had a great time and are looking forward to our next day at the beach! :)