A new Christmas tradition

This year, Mel decided that we needed to start a new Christmas time tradition. He took us to the beach.

Yes, you read that correctly. We went to the beach. Chesapeake Beach. It's about an hour away from us on the Chesapeake Bay. We have gone there several times during the summertime for swimming (actually wading, because it's so shallow, even more than 100 yards out from shore), and fossil finding. One really cool thing about this beach is the fossils. People usually come with their buckets, and shovels to find shark's teeth and other fossils. We have a plastic baggie with at least 100 shark's teeth. And after Mel read an article on winter beachcombing, we decided to go there this Christmas.

The part of the beach we go to has free parking (very limited), but you have to walk at least 1/4 mile to get to the shore. As you can tell, we were excited to get there. We brought blankets, lunch and a tent to set up so we could be nice and comfortable .

It was about 45-50 degrees outside that day. Too cold to get wet, but not too cold to balance precariously on fallen trees over very cold water.

Patricia is the budding photographer. Too bad we don't have a 'good' camera for her. She loves taking pictures. Isn't this hollowed out log cool?

YEAH BOUY!!!!!! (Hey, I couldn't help it. I'm a child of the 90's. Flava FLAAAAAVE)

I didn't mention that very close to the shore, are cliffs. Calvert Cliffs, to be specific. Mimi is actually in a little cave made by the water at high tide when it erodes the cliff.



Cheeeeeese!!

Bigger Cheeeeeeeeese!!

See, how the water is so close to the cliff? Some places along the shore have more beach than this. We usually time our arrival with low tide, so we have maximum play area. We forgot to check the tides when we left home. We actually walked a little ways down the shore from where we set up camp. So, by the time we decided to head back for lunch, this is what we discovered:

NO BEACH!!! Trystan mucked through the water, shoes and all. Patricia took off her shoes first and got the camera to capture the memories for all of us. Mel took the little girls, and I carried our shoes across.

Now, those of you who know me well, know that I HATE to be cold. My darling husband offered to take the girls across, then come back and carry me. (He's definitely a keeper) I didn't take him up on this offer. Once I took off my shoes and stepped into the water, I wish I had!!

The great thing about walking in icy cold water, is that when you get out, your feet actually feel warm. It wasn't so bad walking around barefooted after that. We decided that we needed a memorial shot of our cold feet.

How funny is this? Pants, coats, scarf, and barefeet!!
After the celebratory pictures, we snuggled up in our blankets in our tent and had a yummy lunch and hot chocolate. We had fun, and have made a list of things to bring along for next time. And we'll definitely check when high tide is!