I love living in the DC area, but one thing that always gets me is our distance to the ocean. Sure, we have the Potomac nearby, but it's not the same as living in the Boston area where you could get to the beach in 30 minutes or less.
Around here, the good beaches take 2.5-3 hours to get to without traffic. It's a long way to go, but sometimes you just have a need to see the ocean and sit in the sand. Both Eric and I were feeling that urge a lot lately, so last week, while our daycare provider was on vacation, we packed up the babies and the van and made the drive to Delaware.
The day started early when we left the house at 6am, stopping just for McDonald's breakfast and gas. The babies did great in the car except the last half hour when they both started to meltdown and we had to take a quick diaper change/fresh air break.
We arrived at beach at Cape Henlopen State Park around 9:30am, where we drove our BOB in the sand and quickly set up our new beach tent.
Here's our new beach tent. it worked great, and I highly recommend it.
(Yes, I know what you're thinking. Back in the old days, we all just sat out in the sun, no sunscreen or tent necessary. These days however, it seems everyone has some sort of tent or huge umbrella at the beach.)
After getting situated, we let Piper and Fletch discover the tent, the toys we brought, and the sand.
This, of course meant putting sand directly into their mouths. As you can see, Fletch learned a good life lesson that sand tastes like--sand.
After letting the babies crawl around for a bit, we headed down to the water. Neither Piper or Fletch knew what to make of the waves, but they seemed to enjoy it, especially because the water wasn't the ice bath I played in as a kid at the Cape or Wingasheek. We splashed around for a while, and then went back to the tent for more sandy fun.
We did this dance of waves-sand-waves for about 2 hours until the babies decided they had enough. Eric and I think foolishly attempted to make the babies nap in the tent since they hadn't napped the entire morning. But, that was a big fat FAIL.
(Don't even get me started on the fact that the babies didn't nap during the 3-hour drive to the beach, seeing as they typically have no problem falling asleep on a short car ride from our house, and how in some weird baby math a 45-second nap in the car equals a 2-hour nap at home. This results in me having to sit in the back seat occassionally with the babies singing, making faces, etc. to keep them awake while squeezed in between two car seats using the tiny middle seat death belt--I meant seat belt--to try to keep them awake. Yeah, don't get me started.)
Ok, back to the story. So, after the fruitless attempts at getting the babies to nap failed, we realized we had to pack up the babies and leave because Fletch was in serious meltdown mode and disturbing all the other kids on the beach eating their tuna fish sandwiches and playing in their own child sun protection devices (aka tents).
We stayed on the beach a total of 2.5 hours. Now, some of you might think that this is ridiculous. However, what you don't know is that Fletch probably was just showing the Funderburg in him. When I was a kid, my dad and I would wake up early, go to the beach, I'd last there about 2 hours, and then we'd be home in time for lunch. So, I wasn't surprised we were there such a short time.
Anyway, we changed and packed up the babies, and got in the car. As soon as the engine turned on, the babies were out. This meant that Eric and I were "forced" to eat a drive-thru lunch at Burger King. OkI love BK, but this is the second time I've gone to a BK in MD where they were out of shakes. And, to pour salt in my wounds, they also forgot half the toppings on my burger, which I didn't realize until we were back out on Route 50. MD BK--You're dead to me.
Thankfully, the babies slept in the car through all this trauma, and we arrived home by 3pm. Even though it was a short day, Eric and I were exhausted. But, we figure it is good practice for next year. Maybe by then, we'll break tradition and try to stay on the beach longer than we drive in the car.
