Saturday At The Beach

Hello future readers,

On Saturday morning, Vivienne and I were coming downstairs, getting ready to watch Saturday morning cartoons, when I smelled barbecue. Barbecue at 7 o'clock in the morning? We peeked in the kitchen and my mom was taking barbecued chicken out of the oven. She told us she made it for the picnic we were gonna have at the beach today! Outta site! She also told us Sunny would be here in 20 minutes, so we'd better get a move-on and get ready. We grabbed a couple of quick bowls of cereal, then raced back to my room to get our swimsuits and stuff. Half an hour later, we were all in the car for the long drive to the beach. It was pretty warm when we got there, but not warm enough to go in the water. My mom says the ocean's too cold in March, but we were happy just to be there! We decided to build a sandcastle instead.

Sunny packed some sand in her bucket and made a really good base for the castle.

I thought it should be 2 stories, so I packed some sand in my bucket and really, really carefully added another level to the castle.

I asked Vivienne if she wanted to add something, but she said the castle looked groovy just as it was. We dug a moat around it and was just about to fill it up with water when my mom said it was time for lunch. Yay! That cereal we ate earlier sure didn't go very far, 'cos my stomach was starting to growl! So we got our the barbecued chicken, Doritos chips, and pink lemonade. I got out my radio so we could listen to some music while we ate.

I asked my mom where the dessert was, but she said that would come later. After lunch, we were all pretty full from all that good chicken, that none of us felt like playing much, so we decided to work on our tans. But oh no! I forgot the tanning lotion at home! Sunny said she didn't bring any, but good ole Vivienne to the rescue! She remembered to bring some.

So I changed the station on my radio, and we all laid down for a nice relaxing tan. My mom said we had to be careful not to lay out too long, or we'd turn red like lobsters!

A while later we got up and wanted to play some frisbee. We went a little further down the beach where there weren't so many people, so we wouldn't hit anyone.

It was so much fun! Vivienne kept throwing the frisbee sideways. (a couple of times it almost went into the water!). And Sunny kept trying to dive and catch it, but ended up with a mouth full of sand! YUCK! After running up and down the beach chasing the frisbee, we were getting tired and and little hungry again, too. It was also starting to get cooler. My mom told us to put on our jackets. It was time for dessert! And guess what? My mom started a fire and we got to toast marshmallows, right there on the beach! Far out!

We were having a ball! The radio station we had been listening to was playing "Surfin' U.S.A.", by The Beach Boys. And we were enjoying the burnt, sticky, gooey marshmallows and singing along, even my mom!

It was a dynamite day. I think we all had a pretty good time, even if we couldn't go swimming. Vivienne's visit is off to a super start. I'll be writing more about our adventures this week, future readers, so stay tuned for more!

Until next time,
Your friend,
Julie Newman