Storms to Sun

I headed down to the shore yesterday around lunchtime for a hair cut and to spend the night at my parents'. Just as I got to the bridges to the island, lightning bolts lit up the quickly-darkening sky and thunder shook my car. Within minutes, heavy, heavy downpours flooded the roads and made it difficult to see 5 feet in front of you. The storms lasted several hours.

When the lightning and thunder moved out and the skies cleared a bit, I headed up to the beach with my nephews and sister and mom. We sat and watched the kids play on the heavily eroded beach and get their feet wet in the rough surf. It wasn't a good beach day for them, but it was a really cool sight. Eventually, storm clouds made their way in again, and we headed off the beach.

Being cooped up in the house isn't that fun when you're at the shore, so as soon as all was clear again, we headed out for some serious puddle-jumping.

Homemade pizzas for dinner and a couple glasses of wine, and no alarm clock in the morning. Good stuff. I had planned on taking today off from running, but when I woke up and the temps were cool from the storms passing through, I had to get out there. Ran just 3 easy miles, but the weather was amazing. Today was going to be a low-humidity, low 80's, sunny day. Perfect.

The ocean and beach were still wrecked from the storms, so we headed to the bay beach instead. The boys played, the grown-ups watched, and eventually I got the bug to swim. I cleared it with the lifeguard to swim outside the fence, threw on my cap and goggles, hoped my bikini would stay on in the swim, and set out for the far end of the swim area.

I followed the fence line north to south and back again. I think it was about .25 mi total. Not far, but with the VERY limited open water swimming I really do, I was proud of myself for staying smooth and maintaining freestyle the whole way.

Some play time in the water with the kids and a trip to the ice cream truck later, we were all filled with sunshine and salt air.

We headed home, showered, and got ready to head back to reality. I'm working tomorrow, or I'd have stayed another day. It was a gorgeous day at the shore. Before hitting the road, though, I stopped over to watch my sister-in-law in a paddleboard race.

Looked like lots of fun! The winds had calmed, the sun was still shining brightly, and as I headed off the island and over the bridges, I was amazed at what Mother Nature had given us in the last 28 hours.