We took Jim's new car to the beach. We made sure to bring a change of clothes for everyone so that no one was sitting in wet suits in his car on the ride home. Jim asked for us to be careful with tracking sand in his car too.
As we are on our way, we notice the dark sky and a little rain shower. It's well known that in Florida during the Summer, you get a quick shower and then it is over. The sun will come out and you can proceed with your plans. The last thing you should do is turn around and go home.
We stop at Subway on the way, pick up sandwiches for everyone and a few minutes later, we are one the beach. Within 10 minutes, we have the car completely unpacked and our stuff is set-up by the water (umbrella in the sand, 5 chairs, cooler, boogie boards, sand toys, sunscreen, and mom's big bag with all her essential stuff that she is never without). We are sitting on the chairs and begin eating our lunch. Ian is the first to comment that he feels a drop of rain. My mom says to him, "let's just keep eating, the rain will pass by."
Bad move on our part. Ha! Before you know it, we are drenched!! Completely soaked through. The rain is coming down something fierce and the winds have now kicked in. It is getting really bad out - monsoon like conditions. We went from a sprinkle to a torrential downpour in like 5 seconds flat. Ian and Sam take their subs and make a run for it to the car. Mom puts one hand on the umbrella to keep it from blowing away. Only the wind is stronger than her and she is in jeopardy of blowing away with it. The remaining beach chairs have all fallen over and are now headed on the fast track towards the ocean. Jim and I are scrambling to gather all our stuff and bring it back to the car, which is a good 30 feet or so from where we set up. If its possible to get more soaked than we are, we've accomplished it. The umbrella my mom is still clinging to has turned itself inside out now. We are mess!
It takes us 4 or 5 trips running back and forth from our beach set-up to the car. We manage to contain all of our stuff and help rescue mom from the situation she is in holding on to the umbrella. We seek shelter in the car and finish eating our lunch. There is sand everywhere in the car. And, to make matters worse, the seats in the car are soaked. We are so wet, you could wring us out. Oh my! We weren't even at the beach for 5 minutes, before we completely trash Jim's car.
Knowing Florida and the Summer rains the way we do, we wait out the storm. After about 15 minutes, the sun is shining and we head back out to the beach. This time we leave the umbrella and cooler behind and bring the rest of the stuff with us.
We don't make it more than 10 minutes before the whole scene repeats itself again. Seriously, we all make a run for it and hide for cover in the car again. Now the car is even more wet and sandy in the inside. It's not looking good. But, still we are determined to have our day at the beach and wait it out. After another 10 minutes, the rain has stopped and we ventured out again. This time we leave the umbrella, the cooler, the boogie boards and 3 of the chairs behind. We are getting more efficient at packing up the stuff and making a run for it.
Unfortunately, we don't make it another 15 minutes before the 3rd wave of storms hits. Still not discouraged, we wait out this storm too. When we go to set-up our spot again by the water, we are now down to 2 chairs. We do add in the sand toys after realizing the kids are having fun playing.
By the time we get to the 4th set of storms, we've been there a total of 2 hours and we are ready to call it a day. We are beyond the point of it being ridiculous. Funny enough, there are many people around us who stayed and did the same as us. Typically, you get only one storm and then the rest of the day is good. This was unusual.
We all found the situation very humorous, with the exception of Jim. He was in shock over what his car looked like. It was not pretty. Jim did a great job of presenting a good front, but inside I knew he was freaking out like a little girl. When we got back home, I helped him clean it out and vacuum up the equivalent of about 2 gallons of sand, some even mixed in with water to create a thick, sticky mud. Ugh.
As I was putting Ian down to bed that night, he said to me, "This was the best day ever!" It will definitely be one we remember for a very long time.
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| Definitely not a beach day. |
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| The lifeguard is all bundled up. When do you typically see that in July in Florida? |
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| In the short time we were out of the car, the kids made a friend named, Jake. |
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