pre-storm beach time

My kids came up for the weekend, which was very nice.  We spent a lot of time on the beach with the dogs.  Saturday was windy but sunny and not too cold; today was warmer and not so windy, but not so much sun. 

A couple of discoveries.  Someone official cut passageways thru the new dunes, so you no longer have to climb over or go around to get to the other side.  They also leveled off the sand with the bottom step, so there's no longer a drop of unknowable depth to get off the last step.  This is excellent, and makes it much easier for us non-climbing types to get where we want to go.

I imagine they will add fencing at some point in time, to try to keep idiots from walking on the dunes, and give the grass a chance to grow.  It's nice that this time they put the cut-throughs directly in front of the stairs.  Last time they built dunes, there was an offset of 25 feet or so, and people would walk on the dunes (breaking down the fences) because they didn't get it.  It's that Jersey mentality, the world is going to end if I don't get where I want to go in the next five seconds or less.  Idiots.

There was also an engineering truck out on the beach taking measurements of whatever.  There's been quite a lot of erosion of the new sand, so I suspect that's what they're measuring.  Usually we gain sand in the winter, and it's not normal to see this much erosion this time of year.

 

Of course, the cliffs make it more fun for Dave and Kaylee, who had a blast climbing up and jumping off.  They are the climbing types I was referring to above.  I suspect it is a recessive gene that Dave got from somewhere.

We found a new beachhenge, I think this one is beachhenge 3.

Naturally, both dogs needed to check it out and leave their messages for their brethren.

At one point, racing along, Kaylee knocked Pablo head over heels.  We didn't get a picture, we were all laughing too hard at Pablo playing turtle, having a tough time trying to get back on his feet and off his back.  He rolled in the sand enough that I needed to wash his coat to get the sand out of the velcro.

I think his dignity was a bit wounded.  And you can see the sand stuck in the velcro.

He's totally pooped out from all the activity.

That's Dave holding him. 

Everybody got home ok before the weather got too awful.  It's kind of throwing ice pellets here at the moment.  We'll see what it looks like in the morning, and make an executive decision then as to whether or not I can get to work tomorrow.  I wouldn't mind a snow day, I'm tried, too.