A perfect day for the beach

Sandwiched in between an emergency 24-hour trip to PA to help suddenly car-less daughter #1 and the big trip to move daughter #2 to NC to grad school was my long weekend trip to MI to enjoy a reunion with daughter #3 and to bring her her little gifts from Turkey and Egypt. Yesterday we loaded up the car with as little beach paraphenalia as we could get away with and drove out to Holland State Park, as nice a beach as anyone could want. We would have done it anyhow, but in part this was to make up for the missed beach trip her dad had planned with her except that he broke his toe the day before my departure. And sure enough, we had a wonderful afternoon. Cloudless blue sky, soft waves, clean beaches, colorful sailboats floating past, lighthouse guarding us all, happy family interactions to witness, a good book to read, and kids galore for K to love. It's still ok at the beach for a "strange" woman to build sandcastles with three year olds as mom and their parents look indulgently on though it is no longer ok for her to approach unknown kids at the city pool. We enjoyed every minute of it until we began to fry and it was time to go home. The bonus? Running into some IVCF friends from Ohio/Michigan -- imagine, just like seeing those friends you've lost touch with at the local grocery store....only a more lovely setting!