Girl and the Sea

I'm at Carolina Beach with my parents for a few days. Mom & Daddy bought a timeshare here the summer I turned 13 and have been coming here most summers ever since. For a few years when I was in high school we traded the week for a condo somewhere else, one year we visited Savannah, GA (I read Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil on the drive to get ready for our trip), another year we went to a tiny town near Dillard, GA (we went white water rafting on the Nantahala Falls). Most years we stuck with Carolina Beach, a small beach town near Wilmington, NC. It's a pretty quiet area, lots of seafood restaurants, plenty of fishing (for those so inclined) and an old-fashioned boardwalk.

When I arrived this afternoon my parents ordered a pizza and then we took a walk on the beach. We watched a wedding (my second observed-beach-wedding of the summer), tried to avoid being run over by the surfers and laughed at each other (me running in and out of the waves, my mom trying to avoid getting wet). Then we played several hands of hearts. Now my Dad's watching an Errol Flynn movie and I'm watching the lights of the pier reflect off the ocean. (I tried to take a picture for you but it's too dark.)

Tomorrow will be filled with my favorite beach activity: I place a low sand chair in the waves and spend hours just sitting, reading a book or talking with my mom and letting the water lap at my legs. When I get hot I dive into the ocean and swim out for a while, then flip over and float on my back, staring up at the sky. Later in the day I'll stretch out in the sand and let the sounds of the ocean put me to to sleep. Adam hates it but, to me, this is summer.

My sister and her boyfriend arrive tomorrow.