Girl's Trip - Part 3

We got an early start to the beach, prepared to not check into the hotel and just pay at the beach until the room was ready, but we got lucky with a much earlier check-in than I expected, so we were able to settle into our room and head right down to the beach.  Nina loves the ocean more than I can describe.  She is in the water and in the waves from the second we get down to the beach until we drag her out of the water to take a break.  She doesn’t stay close in to the shore either, and she’s always going farther out than I want her to be, but she has so much fun.  Long after I’m tired in the waves or ready to take a break, she’s still having a blast.  While it’s not possible to fully relax while she’s out there, it also gives me a lot of joy to see her having so much fun.

 

 

Last year, Lyla was all about the boogie board and staying a little closer in to shore.  This time, she was still about the boogie board, but she also had fun venturing out into the waves, especially when Mousey and I were out there with her.  She learned how to ride over waves and learned to dunk under when need be also.  She played hard in the water also, but it doesn’t take much convincing to get Lyla to come out of the water for snacks.  Lyla lives for snacks, so we could much more easily tempt her out of the water to take a break than Nina.

 

 

We stayed down on the beach until after 5pm, then all had to come up for showers before heading out to dinner.  

The girls were really tired after showers until they got some food in them.  Then with a good dinner, they were ready to walk the boardwalk and take in some of the sights, the music, etc.  We stopped at Neptune Park where there was a live concert going on.

 

We arrived back at our hotel room just as the 10pm fireworks started, so we watched them from our balcony.  After that it didn’t take much convincing to get two tired girls to head to bed!

The next morning, the girls were anxious to get down to the beach as soon as they woke up.  I was fine with going down to look for shells and walk the beach, but I told them it was way to early to head into the water swimming.  While they technically didn’t go swimming, they definitely didn’t stay dry either.  It all started with Lyla getting her shorts a bit wet in the waves (of course), then it all went downhill from there.

 

Of course we saw sea gulls, but we also saw some dolphins or porpoises swimming relatively close in to the shore.  The girls always get excited about seeing them, but they were particularly excited this time to see a baby swimming with the pod! 

 

Once the lifeguards got on their chairs, we got the girls in their bathing suits and they were right back down to the beach and into the water.  Day two was more cloudy than the first day, but it acutally ended up being a bit of a blessing in disguise as Nina had gotten a little too much sun on her face the first day, and not having all the bright sun reflecting off the water was a good thing for her.

 

One thing on the girls’ beach bucket list was to have “cake by the ocean” like the song we always hear on the radio, and since I had a hard time finding real cake, I got cake pops and slices of lemon cake, and it seemed to do the trick!

 

We stayed late down at the beach again then got ready for dinner at Rudees Inlet.  Unfortunately, the girls were too wiped out to walk the boardwalk again that evening.  All the sun and playing in the waves and on the beach definitely caught up with them, and they both actually wanted to go back to the hotel and get to bed.

Our last day at the beach was a sunny one, and our plan was to check out of the hotel when need be, move the car, and spend the rest of the day at the beach before driving back to Hartfield that evening. 

They spent some time on the beach, took a dip in the hotel pool, then we did one more thing on the beach bucket list.  We rented one of those 4-person beach buggies and made it our mission to get from one end of the boardwalk and back before our hour time limit expired.  It was a serious challenge and one that left Mouse and I soaked to the core in sweat, but we had a lot of fun and some really good laughs along the way!

We arrived back at Hartfield on the final day of our journey after having a great time at the beach.  We had a quiet last evening - packing up and getting ready to head off in the morning.  We made it back home in the afternoon a week after we left.  The girls had a great time away, but they were also very glad to be back at home again.  It was an awesome time to be away with my girls and my mom - memories I’ll enjoy for a very long time!