Sunnin'

As I mentioned, for a couple of months this summer, I spent a majority of the daylight hours here

 

 At the beach!

I went almost daily.  I had my own special place, and I basically set up camp there for several hours every day.  In addition to the breeze and the ability to get my over-heating body in the water, it was the only place I could really exercise.  Despite my summer-camp fan, it was WAY too scorching to walk in my house on the treadmill.  Even if I could have handle walking outside in the afternoon shade, I could NOT handle the over-abundance of legless wonders slithering around our fair island.  I see enough just driving down the road thank you very much. 

So, I packed up my little beach bag and took my happy self to the beach every day.  I read, snacked, people watched, swam, and walked up and down the beach.

People here do not really walk the beach, so, in a way, it was a bit embarrassing.  You could tell that people maybe thought I was parading around, showing off oh-so-awesome pregnant lady body....the shape of which was becoming stranger by the day. 

This guy was there every day too, walking up and down the beach with his wares on his head screaming "Donuts, Melon, and Sandwich!!!!"

And there was quite a lot to watch.

For one, I am always entertained by watching the different people from different cultures with different beach habits and rituals.  I love hearing all the mixtures of languages.  This particular beach had a lot of British and German tourists all summer, some French and Scandinavian, a lot of Italians in August, and Greeks on Saturdays and Sundays.  The little naked children running around, playing in the sand, and squealing and splashing in the waves are always fun to watch too (not fun to watch because they are naked...for some reason European children just are a lot at the beach...just because they are cute:) 

Another interesting thing I watched a lot was a group of what I think were Thai ladies and gentlemen.  They walked all over the beach fully clothed, with charts of the muscular and skeletal systems of the human body, selling massages.  Now, I think we have all established that I love a good massage.  I mean, I love a good massage!  However, having a stranger straddle my barely clothed, hot, sticky, sweaty, sandy body and proceed to rub all over me in front of 100s of spectators just does not sound like my cup of tea.  Apparently, some people can ignore the additional heat generated by the skin-to-skin contact, the dripping sweat of the masseuse, the sand being ground into their flesh (exfoliation?) and the watching eyes.  I am glad they had that pleasure on their day at the beach.  I just watched.

So, if you were looking for me round about the month of August, you could have found me at the beach. I plan to spend the majority of my afternoons in the exact same place next summer as well.....with my own little tag-a-along...who will probably be at least somewhat clothed.... 

Until another day,
Haley