A Walk At The Beach--phew..

Don't let the title mislead you. 

Mind you, I LOVE taking walks on the beach--relaxing, looking at the ocean, enjoying the smell and the beauty of it, walking in the waves...what is there not to love, right? 

Well, today my youngest had a field trip at the beach.  I decided to go and join him at the beach for lunch, and then drive him home to my mom's house for the rest of the afternoon.  I had it all planned, and I even stopped to get a sandwich so I could eat mine with us at the seashore.  I got to the beach, and found a nice parking spot, and went out looking for him. 

There weren't that many people at the beach, but there were a lot of kids.  I scanned the beach, and couldn't see anyone from his class or any of his teachers.  Alarm bells sounded off in my head at that point.  Maybe I was at the wrong beach?  I decided to  a walk on the sand anyway.  I walked...and walked...  (Walking on the sand counts as double walking in my opinion.)  But, no sign of anyone.  I walked back to my car, holding my lunch bag-egg salad sandwich and my Snapple, and decided to scan the beach next door. 

 Of course the other beach next door was busier than the first, and there were no parking spaces, but I found one in front of a house farther down in residential side of the beach, which meant more walking from there to the sand.  I scanned the area again.  No time to look at the ocean, or enjoy the scenery, no, I was scanning for children.  I must have looked like a lunatic or something--I hope nobody thought I was out to steal a child or something.  Feeling defeated, and pretty stupid, I headed back to the car and made a phone call to the Preschool, who informed me that they were indeed at the first beach I was at the first time.

So, I head back to the first beach, and wouldn't you know, the first kid I see is Nicholas in his red sweater sitting with the rest of the group, in plain sight.  Apparently during the time I had arrived the first time, the group decided to visit a cave.  Lovely.  So, I got to spend the last 10 minutes of the field trip, with Nicholas crying over a cut on his ankle (he apparently fell off a rock near the lighthouse), and he wasn't crying UNTIL he saw that I was there, naturally so...  I managed to swallow half of my sandwich, and then it was time to head for home.  Of course, the teacher didn't bring his booster seat (her truck had one built into it) and I had to follow her all the way back to the preschool to retrieve it. 

Pheww...

I finally got Nicholas back to my mom's house, and raced back to work, and then suddenly I noticed the front of my legs were covered with sand.  How office appropriate!  I look like one of the clients in the lobby right about now.  I cleaned off my legs, and got the sand out of my loafers, and I'm not kidding, the garbage can has about an inch of sand in it right now.  I hope there isn't sand in my hair. 

Oh well, at least I have my hair brush and some Skin So Soft cream at hand.  I decided to do good on my Avon pimping, and went across the street to the county building and left more brouchures in the cafeteria.  I felt chipper, so I decided to climb the 5 flights of stairs to my friend Maria's office.  Damn..  5 flights is a lot of stairs.  It will either keep you healthy, or kill you.  With that from this morning, and all the walking this afternoon, I'm ready to sit in a jacuzzi.  Too bad I don't have one, huh?