::first beach visit::

On Saturday, after Kris got done studying for his board exam we grabbed some fast food and headed down to the beach. The weather was nice and the sun was bright. We got down there around 5PM or so. There were people there swimming which was truly nuts, but we just set up our lawn chairs to enjoy the view.

Max sort of ate, but really was just too excited to be at the beach. He had to run to and from the water constantly. Over and over. And luckily the water was too cold for Max even to get into it. I think this was maybe the first time ever that he's admitted the water was too cold. Otherwise he'd have been in up to his neck after the first 5 minutes.
There he goes:


And he comes:

He's so cute.


Can you read the sand?

We had a great time. It was a little chilly when the sun started to go down, but the beach is just so awesome, you can't go wrong. We're hoping for some serious beachy time before it's time to move. We'll see how it goes.

On the way home we were impulsive and stopped at one of the many roadside ice cream places. Kris and I shared a banana split and Max got his own serious cone. He was way serious about it too.


And he made a very serious mess.

We had so much fun. And by the way Kris's board exam is over with now, for better or for worse. I'm thinking for better. Hooray for a big thing over with!

::annoying::

So there are things we really like about living out here in the East, and there are things we don't like. The things we don't like can be generally categorized into two statements.
1. It's too crowded
2. It's too expensive

And yes, this is coming from people who grew up in the west where there's a lot more space, and people who just spent four years in the midwest where some things (like real estate and rent) are amazingly affordable.

But anyway, that's how we feel. And both of those points were reinforced in our minds this weekend on our Palmyra NY trip.
I have more pictures and stuff to post about it later, but I have to gripe a little bit.

The toll roads out here are enough to drive you crazy. They're everywhere, but there aren't many in RI, so whenever we go on a trip we're caught slightly unawares. And the bummer is, if you don't have cash to pay the toll at the end, and you get off to go to the bank you have to pay double tolls. Ouch.
Anyway, this time somehow I had some cash, thank goodness. Because one way the tolls added up to over $13. One stretch of road was $10!! So crazy.

When you're stuck on the toll road there are these big "travel plazas" directly off the freeway. You can go to those if you need to eat or use the bathroom and that way you don't have to pay extra tolls for getting on and off. Great deal you might think, right? Helping out the traveller, right?
WRONG.
We went to one with a McDonalds. It was so crowded. I had to wait in a huge line to use the bathroom. Then the McDonald's didn't have a dollar menu. It evidently didn't exist, and the value meals started at about $7. I call that extortion. Then it was so busy we barely found a spot to sit down and eat. Yuck.

I brought a cooler of food for our lunch on sunday. We thought it would be great, we could just stop at a rest area, eat our pbjs at a picnic table and relax.
Unfortunately, somebody had taken away all the picnic tables. All was left at the rest area were concrete pads in the midst of a big field where people let their dogs poop.

There were really big ants too. Luckily we had a blanket, but we still weren't all that comfortable. What a bummer.
What happened to good old fashioned American picnicing? What jerk decided that they wanted to make things so miserable for people that they'd be forced to go to their rotten plazas?

The bathrooms have been removed too, evidently. All there is are signs informing folks of where the nearest "travel plaza" is.
Doesn't do you much good when the 5 year old is doing the dance.

Later on we had to stop at one of the plazas to use the bathroom. It was packed with cranky people. So crowded. And some old lady got really mad at Max for stepping on her foot (supposedly) and gave us crusty looks until we finally escaped the place. If you step right next to a crazy 5 year old whose mom is already trying to contain him and drag him out to the car, you put your feet in danger.

Anyway there you go. Everything is way too crowded and too dang expensive. Argh.

::beach picnic with grandma::

We took Kathy to the beach so that we could have a picnic. We had to make up for her missing out on the summer beach fun.

The weather was so gorgeous the week while she was here, we were in short sleeves and sandals, and the beach was just perfect.
We took Sultan with us, because after Labor day dogs are finally allowed on the beach. We hadn't brought him there yet, so we thought this was a good opportunity to try.

We laid out a blanket and told Max to stay out of the water. Well, we took his shoes off and told him he could dip his toes in.

Hah.

Luckily along with lunch we were also smart enough to bring some extra clothes and a towel for Max. But really I figured it was going to be too cold and uncomfortable for him to want to get all soaked. Boy was I wrong!

The boys went and played football for a bit.





That was pretty fun.

Then we went on a little walk down the beach. Sultan and Max found a gross little estuary left over from a higher tide, and of course they both basically wallowed in it.

It didn't smell that great.
Max made some sort of art installation. I like it.






Kris climbed out on some rocks in the surf, and it really worried Sultan. Can you see him trying to get out there? He was really relieved when Kris came back.

Sultan was afraid of the surf. It was a first for him, and he couldn't figure out why the water kept coming and going. He would jump away whenever it got close.


Sultan was fun to have along except that he kept getting sandy and muddy and then running all over our blanket. That did not make me happy.
And any time he thought there was another dog around (which was more often than you'd think) he'd run away up over the hill out of sight, which I hate.
Even that was ok, but one time he brought a dog back with him. The dog seemed friendly enough. But of course they ran straight onto the blanket, where I was sitting, and started running around. THEN the other dog decided it was all upset and started to growl and attack Sultan. Basically right on top of me. I had to scramble out of the way. It was pretty uncool, and after that we sent Sultan back to the car. I don't like dogfights happening on top of me for some reason.

There was old dead crusty seaweed all over the beach. I guess nobody cleans it up after Labor day. It was fine except that it really hurt our feet to walk on it. It was really spikey. But guess who it didn't bother? Max!
Check it out.

He walked all over that stuff and didn't even blink. This must be why he can walk all over his toys when they're all over the floor and not even notice. I should be so lucky.

We ate, we lay in the sun for a while, then we got Max all cleaned up and changed and we went home.
It was great. We were so glad we went. It couldn't have been nicer.
I love the beach out here. I think it's my favorite part of Rhode Island for sure. And I'm guessing Max probably feels the same way.
We're still working to convince Sultan.