Fun Turn - Not Sun Burn at Beach

Fun Turn - Not Sun Burn, at the Beach

by Bill Russo 

author at Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Smashwords, Kobo/Walmart, and Apple

Who doesn’t love a day at the beach?  Under bright sunshine, Mom and Dad can swim, work on a tan, or just lie back on the warm sand.  The kids can build castles at the water’s edge and dive into the waves.

Budding scientists can investigate the aquatic life, tide pools, and  ocean-crafted pieces of drift wood.  Beach time can be very relaxing and refreshing. Any trip, however, can come to an uncomfortable ending if you fail to do a little fore-planning.

Some folks are lucky enough to reside within a few hundred feet of the ocean, but for most, a trip to the water means a ride in the car. Since that’s where your trip begins, it’s wise to make a quick inspection of the vehicle.  Take out the golf clubs from the trunk, or the ‘recyclables’ that have been piling up for a dump trip.  An empty trunk gives you more room for beach stuff.

The Long Steel Line trying to leave mainland Massachusetts and enter Cape Cod

Take a look at the glove box too. Make room for some band aids, sunblock, perhaps some aspirins, a few Tums for the tummy, and perhaps a book.

A brief inspection of tires, oil and other fluid levels, is also a good idea.  Make sure your GPS or phone app is charged up and ready to go. 

“Are we there yet?” voiced by impatient youngsters, is always a sign of a long trip and those four words are almost guaranteed to send even the most patient parents into a full blown dither. 

Even a half hour trip is a long journey for small children, so make sure they have water bottles and (healthy) snacks.  Car games work well.  Older kids can sometimes be kept busy tracking license plates from different states.  You could consider giving a small prize to the first kid who spots a yellow car. 

Be creative and come up with some new ways for the children to pass the time, especially in places like Cape Cod, off the coast of Massachusetts.  Sometimes cars can be in a one hour ‘stall and crawl’ just to make the last mile or two to get to the Bourne Bridge or the Sagamore Bridge – the only two ways to get to the Cape by car. 

One mile long, West Dennis Beach, Cape Cod

Once you get to the beach, the first thing you need to do, after dragging everything from the car to a perfect spot, is Block, Block, and Block.  Sunblock, I mean.  Use a sunblock with a high SOF rating – be especially on guard during the blistering hours between ten in the morning and four in the P.M.

If you go in the water, your sunblock will get washed off, so you’ll need to put more on when you get back to the blanket or recliner. Foot protection and eye protection are also a concern.  The sand can get very hot.  Also some areas have more rocky beaches than sandy ones.  You might need to wear water shoes.

Like anything else, a little pre-planning will pay big dividends.  Make your day at the beach a memorable one for the right reasons.  You want the kids to have a great recollection of the fun turn they had at the beach, not the sun burn they got at the beach!

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 by Bill Russo

a retired broadcaster and journalist living the dream on Cape Cod in Summer and tropical West Palm Beach, Florida in Winter. Bill's books include the Creature From the Bridgewater Triangle, the Ghosts of Cape Cod an a Smashwords exclusive.  Whiz Bang City - the Last Wild West Town.  It's the story of a wild west town in 1920s America.  The gunfighters rode Model T cars to their shootouts on Main Street.  The book is FREE and available only on Smashwords - a free site. https://www.smashwords.com/extreader/read/695784/1/the-last-wild-west-town-whiz-bang-city