off to the beach!

I feel like summer has finally arrived now that I've spent a day at the beach!  My friend Colleen came and picked me up in the early afternoon and it was off to the Cape with us!

Of course we had to cross the famous bridge!

I made Colleen laugh and felt like such a tourist, taking pictures as we went across, but it had to be done! For the blog! (not quite as fun as yelling "for Narnia!")

After a quick pit stop to grab chairs and the umbrella we didn't end up using  as it was extremely windy, we burrowed our bare feet in the sand and commenced sunbathing.

I somehow managed to find a chair that exactly matched my swimsuit!

Say "hi" to Colleen! We haven't been able to hang out in the month since school ended, so the drive and the time lazing on the beach were well put to use for catching up!

No Lifeguard, no problem! Ingrid to the rescue! 

(Colleen is actually a lifeguard and despite the signs there were a bunch of them whose jobs mainly consisted of blowing their whistles at us when we tried to sit on the unoccupied chair...)

bummer you can't really see our pruniness :(

We spent about an hour and a half (if not more, we kind of lost track of the time) in the water and left sun-kissed, wind-blown, and sea-salted. Add all of those descriptions to our pruned fingers and we kind of sound like a recipe!  

We only left the beach when the time came for an early dinner. After calling in a pizza with extra cheese and onions (I usually get mushrooms and olives while Colleen usually gets peppers... we compromised with a topping we both like), we headed to the country store to buy some penny candy to have while watching "Love Actually" which, surprisingly, neither of us had ever seen from start to finish.

 ...And there was a lot of candy!

We filled up our little wicker basket and were ready to go, but not before checking out some of the knick knacks that are quintessentially Cape Cod!

There are seriously mermaids everywhere.

These, especially, are like Cape Cod in a jar! I have so many summer memories involving rope bracelets growing up! I think I even learned how to make them one year, something I wish I could remember.

I definitely knew how to make these once upon a time! Monkey paws were all the rage one year at camp. We wore smaller ones like necklaces and bracelets, I think one girl even managed to make one small enough to wear as a ring! Younger-me was very impressed (and jealous).

Of course there are also all the cards and articles of clothing that have "Cape Cod" written on it in big letters. There are also toys and accessories and all manner of gift stuffs. You could spend hours in that store and keep discovering new treasures!

By the time we drove back, it felt like midnight. I was tired in the best of ways, when you have salt dried in your hair and your skin feels pleasantly warm. It was the perfect day to really kick off summer. I can't wait for another like it.