Sounds, Sights and Feelings At the Beach

Imagine walking on a soft, moist bed of white sand. The cool breeze is gently blowing, the chirping of the birds flying around can be heard in the background. As you look down in the smooth white sand, slightly discolored by the cool, crystal clear water from the ocean, you see thin, snakelike trails in the sand left behind by the gentle erosion from the waves. Ahead of you in the distance is a wet, dark, wooden pier that appears to grow out of the shoreline and enters into the ocean. You stop to admire the view of the colorful, picturesque scene and notice that the pier seems to disappear into the ocean of sunlight. Your feet begin to feel cold and suffocated, and something wet and clammy is oozing between your feet and toes. The soft, very fine grained, sugar white sand is so clean and bright from the sun’s rays of light. In the background you can hear the waves crashing on the beach side, your face and arms can feel the heat from the rays of the beating sun, the seagulls dipping in the ocean searching for the next meal.

Just as you look down at your feet a very cold and wet splash of water collides abruptly with your face and a faint childish giggle is heard in the distance. You wipe the water from your eyes, open them and see your child laughing at your reactions while standing to the left of you holding his little red, plastic shovel and red and white plastic pale. As he holds his pale over his arm near his elbow, and clasps his hands together as if in prayer, begs you to come see his sand castle he just finished building. As you walk with him, both of you are kicking the sand up into the air with your feet and watching and feeling it fall to the ground like gentle, wet, cool raindrops. The closer you get to the sand castle, the more you can hear your son whimpering and sniffing his nose, as if he was catching a cold. Your son runs away from you towards a mound of sand about twenty feet in front of you, running as if something was wrong.

You catch up to your son, kneeling on the ground, his arms spread wide open to his sides, and flinging sand into a pile, crying and saying somebody messed up my castle. As you look around the area to see if anyone looks suspicious and to try to determine what had happened to your son?s sand castle, you notice again, the small snakelike trails in the sand just beyond the sand castle before getting to the ocean. It appears that a wave came in and took half of the castle back out to sea. You kneel down to tell your son a wave from the ocean took his castle. Just as you open your mouth to speak to your son, a bright blue and yellow-stripped plastic beach ball bounces off of your face and land where a castle once was. Your son begins to laugh hysterically at you and jumps up and grabs the ball and kicks it off in the distance.

The damaged castle is no longer a problem, the comical relief from the beach ball hitting you in the face has changed the expressions and feelings your son has.

Times like this is what makes the beach such a special place to me. No matter how bad of a day at work you had, how many arguments you have had with your significant other, all the stress of your daily life is forgotten when you?re at the beach. Sit back enjoy the gentle breeze, the cool mist from the ocean, the laughter heard in the background and smile, because you?re at the beach.