This is what this vacation was really about. Spending time at the beach with our family. Never having spent time on an East Coast beach, we didn’t know what to expect. We were a little taken aback by the brown/green seawater. And though the air was hot and muggy, the heavy clouds gave the appearance of a cold ocean we weren’t sure we wanted to step into. Fortunately for us, we hadn’t come all this way just to look at the Atlantic Ocean; we barreled in.

What a blast! We rode our boogie boards, body surfed, jumped over waves, dived through waves, and tumbled to shore with the surf. When we’d had enough, we got out the kite, laid in the sun, or built sand castles. When the humidity got to us, back into the warm ocean we’d go. Beach umbrellas are available inexpensively at any of the numerous beach supply stores in town. I highly recommend getting one. We also bought boogie boards, a skim board, and a kite. The boogie boards and umbrella are cheap enough that leaving them behind at the end of the vacation is not too painful. We managed to fit the kite into our luggage, and took the skim board home as carry-on. At the end of each beach trip, we were all pleasantly tired, lightly sunburned, and happy to have shared more great vacation memories.