a day on the beach

In the past, I've never been much of a beach person. I've whined whenever my family took trips to the Jersey Shore, mouthing off about how boring it was, how I never understood the attraction.

But damn if I didn't have fun down in Avalon yesterday. Between going in the water twice (and managing to avoid the legions of boogie boarders), making a giant out of sand, and people-watching, the time flew by (also, good company never hurts). And there might not be anything more relaxing than sitting on a beach in a comfy chair and digging your toes into the sand.

My favorite bit of people-watching actually kept us there a bit longer than we were initially planning. Our chairs were on the beach in front of where all the surfers did their thing. Just when we were about to leave, a new guy caught our eye. He strutted down the beach and struck quite the pose as he examined the waves. After attaching his ankle bracelet, he oh-so-stylishly ran his fingers through his hair. We had no choice but to decide his name was Pretty Boy.

Sadly, Pretty Boy's surfing ability did not quite match his devotion to looking good. About the most effective thing he did out in the water was flip his hair around. In the half hour we watched him, he got up all of two times and fell no-so-stylishly almost immediately. Moral of the story: if you're going to draw attention to yourself, make sure you can follow through on the expections.