Summer 2019 was drawing to a close and realized we had yet to go to the beach.<\/p>\n
And by beach, we meant The Beach<\/em>, which means the ocean<\/em> in these parts. We had been taking dips in lakes and swimming pools all summer, but no trip to\u00a0 the seashore.\u00a0 Neither my wife nor I are big beach people.\u00a0 Going to the beach is more of a ritual for us than a passion. Our yearly tradition is to go to the shore at least once a summer. And usually, we put off going until we forget about it. Then we realize we were running out of time because there is no endless summer in temperate zones. To make the situation more dire, September arrived with unseasonably cool weather. It looked like we wouldn’t be making the beach after all this summer.<\/p>\n But the weather turned promising. Hot, humid beach weather<\/em> was forecast for last full day of summer. And the last full\u00a0 day fell perfectly on\u00a0 Sunday.\u00a0 We packed up the blanket and umbrella and other\u00a0 paraphernalia\u00a0 folding chairs and sunscreen, and made the forty minute ride to board-walk-kitschy\u00a0 Nantasket beach. We wondered on the drive if the beach would be crowded with last minute sun worshipers. We then surmised real beach-people had gone\u00a0 to the beach all summer, had their fill and and\u00a0 moved on to fall.<\/p>\n We were correct. The beach was nearly empty. We relaxed, worked on our tans and went in the water a few times.\u00a0 After several splendid hours,\u00a0 we packed it up and proceeded to the next part of our yearly beach going ritual: We made a stop at Dairy Queen<\/em>.<\/p>\n A perfect end to summer.<\/p>\n Copyright 2019 Christopher Donahue<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Summer 2019 was drawing to a close and realized we had yet to go to the beach. And by beach, we meant The Beach, which means the ocean in these parts. We had been taking dips in lakes and swimming … Continue reading