Impressions of a few hours at the beach

[wispfox]

the smell of salty sea air caused a reaction in me like I was coming home; something that doesn't actually tend to happen even when I really *am* at any of the homes I've had.

salt, and breeze, and sun, and small wispy clouds...

the predominance of touristy-type things just made me smile, and feel a little like I was back at my parents' home in Laconia. Or maybe like I was on the random trips down the east coast my family used to take while I was growing up. I have fond memories of the dunes in the Carolinas... sand dunes are *fun*.

Salisbury beach (I'd originally gone up with intention of going to Hampton, but got annoyed with the traffic. I think I prefer Salisbury anyway...) is nice. Relatively quiet, even though today was a nice, sunny, warm day. Water was a lot nippy, but I expected that, and didn't spend much time in it.

I don't yet have a beach towel, and had decided on a hand towel. *just* big enough to keep my bathing suit out of the sand. Which is good, as I was surprised to find that there were no showers there, on the way out.

The sand was warm, soft, gritty, sticky. Attached quite well to me anytime I touched any of it, with wet hands or dry. Sparkly, too. I do like sand, even if it does tend to be a pain to remove and uncomfortable if one does *not* remove it.

The sky was blue, with clouds that sometimes covered the sun and made the breeze feel just a tad bit cooler.

The world was flat. Even flatter than it feels when comparing the places I've lived for the past 6 years to where I grew up. No real hills... lots of tall grass-like substances. Sand. Water. seagulls. I missed the little birds whose name I cannot remember, probably from somewhere further south, which spend their time trying to find food in the sand while the waves are not covering it. Sand pipers? They were always amusing...

And there appeared to be no small sea life around, excepting for plant life. No tiny shells with creatures inside, peaking out of the sand. Of course, I did not actually dig in the sand, either. Maybe next time.

I could smell the sea at about the same time as I noticed the world getting flatter. Quite probably because there was nothing in the way of the sea air at that point in time.

MMm. Big difference between going to a lake (I grew up in the Lakes Region of NH - there's lots of those there), and to a beach. Both fun, but differently fun.

It does tend to be easier to find places to skinny dip with lakes - less insanely flat ground that way. Something I've not done for a while... (and no, hot tubs do *not* count, indoors or out. ;)