Sunday, September 8, 2019

Cake by the Ocean


My kids have never experienced the ocean before now.

Day 1: at the end of a long travel day...
Jonty - after running in excitedly, being promptly pulled down by the waves, beached up on the sand, and sits down grumpily beside me: "Yuck.  I hate salt water.  It's disgusting!"
Gabi - snaps on her goggles, runs in, swims past the wake underwater, plays happily for a while.  Comes out, dries off, then suddenly starts yelling: "My legs, they are so itchy, MOM, it won't stop, they're itchy!" (a side effect of salt water drying onto your skin; it takes some getting used to)
Catarina - refuses to put on her bathing suit.  Spends an hour filling a bucket with sand and sending my aunt to the water to fill her watering can.
Mark - walks home like a cowboy after a long ride, because...you guessed it, salt water dries THAT skin too!
Everyone wants to go back to my aunt's house.

Day 2:  we buy a little boogie board...
Jonty - rides a couple of waves, and his smile is huge.
Gabi - rides wave after wave after wave, and her smile is huge.
Catarina - suits up happily, and decides to fill the ocean with sand, scoop by scoop, running to the water's edge, throwing in a scoop, and racing back giggling before the waves catch her.
No one wants to go back to my aunt's house.




Day 3:
Jonty & Gabi - repeat of day 2. They discover that lovely ladies troll the beach selling fresh doughnuts called "Bolas de Berlim". A sweet piece of heaven.
Gabi - while changing into dry clothes "I like Portuguese beaches, you can be naked here and no one minds" (topless is common for girls and women).
Catarina - decides she wants to swim with daddy.  Goes in, her hand slips, she gets pulled under by a wave, comes back up and says calmly: "I didn't like that". Wants to stay in.
Mark - on the mend.
We all watch the sunset.

Point - OCEAN.

2 comments:

  1. Fantastic. I am so happy for you all.

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  2. The not getting changed at the beach is a giant annoyance I have with Canada! So great!

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