Thursday, September 2, 2010

The walk to the beach

You start out by walking down my grandparents' driveway.


A little ways down, you turn to the right and step over a broken piece of fence into the woods. There is a small winding path among the foliage.


You go down a little hill into “Mosquito valley” (generally we ran through this – the name of it scared us more that was probably necessary),


After Mosquito Valley, you go up another bigger hill, and the dirt begins to turn sandy. Then you break out of the woods, and the smell hits you. It is the smell of the ocean breeze mixed with bayberry bushes that grown along the path. This is when you start to get excited.


You take off your shoes here, because the ground has turned officially to sand. A few more steps...



and you peak at the top of the hill!


Here we usually were forced to stop and take a picture by my mom or grandpa. Jennie and I kept up the tradition with our kids.


The very best part, however, is the final hill. You run down and back up and then it's into the ocean! I remember screaming, running as fast as I can, with cousins and siblings, leaving the grownups to walk the rest of the way. Grownups...



And that's it. That's our walk to the beach.