a beach scandal

i love the beach.
love it.
wish i could live right on the beach-
and with the ridiculous amount we pay in rent here we could live on the beach.....
i need to get my priorities straight.
so yesterday we took that dreaded 1+ hr subway ride to the ocean.
as soon as my feet hit sand i forget about the ride and settle into beach joy.

naturally we
dug a massive hole for mary to play in
found a lot of shells (of which mary threw most back)
made friends with random stranger kids
tried to perfect our squash ball form
got sand in every crevice
annddd ate a sandwich

there was no shortage of
unlicensed selling of beverages, empanadas, flower cut mangoes, and i'm sure other surprise loot
old school rap tunnage like "i like big butt's".... which played over and over again.
people- there were a lot of people, but it was far less crowded than our cali beaching.

then there was the surprise
instant transit from public, child friendly beach, to nude beach....
yes nude.
dale says, "is that girl topless?"
i take a gander-
yes, boobs.
no denying.
and then mary wandered over to boob camp- and my insides got all sorts of crazy awkward.
we desperately tried to beckon mary back with the sweet sound of our voices-
when that didn't work desperate voices took hold and the use of attention diversion.
seagulls became our best friends at that moment; mary cannot deny herself a good seagull chase.
it was way awkward,
but not illegal-
these nycers know their rights- and they take 'em.
it's moments like that i wish they wouldn't.

anywho here's some pics of our crazy, scandalized, beach vacay.

 first buried 

then turned into a mermaid

 it was hard to tell if she liked it or if she hated it

 dale lured some seagulls in with food scraps.

i told him he better not- 

they can get vicious. 

while he was tossing out morsels to these "starved" birds i had 1st grade cali beach flashbacks.

preteen nancy screaming in the background

the tragic scene of seagulls destroying her long awaited plate of spaghetti.

then the depressed sob from starvation caused by birds. 

it was my first introduction to legit seagulls by the sea- 

i'll never forget it, and i'll never leave food out on account of it. 

 these sailboats made me jealous. 

 my teeny beaching comrade.

 then this. 

we were going to stay for the friday night fireworks but....
we arrived a bit early and couldn't last the 6 1/2 hrs- by we, i mean mary.
it was a lovely escape.
full of all sorts of things i'd never experienced at the beach before.

here's to new days and brand new experiences- some like, some not so liked.