The best day of the year

I love going to the beach. As a child, my family would spend our vacations on the Jersey shore, so I have wonderful memories and feelings about water, sand and sun. I find the whole experience so relaxing. I can sit on plastic chair, look out to the ocean and be content for hours...days even.

And then there's Dan. He may be a man from California, but just like parks, the beach is boring to him. After a few hours of beach bliss, the man is ready to go home. Part of the problem is that Dan doesn't like how East Coast people do the beach.

When you live in LA and you want to go to the beach, he explains, you get in your car in voila, in 20 minutes you are there. You can go to the beach at 2 and leave at 3, no big deal. On the East Coast, since it's a bit of schlep to the coast line (at least an hour, in most cases), people tend to make a day of the beach, heading out early morning and leaving around 5. This is no fun, according to Dan. And then there's the fact of money. On the West Coast, the beach is a free man's land. On the East Coast, in most cases, you have to pay to go on the beach. "Boo! Hiss!" Dan says.

On top of all of this, Dan only likes to go to the beach when the weather is "perfect." While most people enjoy the beach anytime the sun is out and the temperature is above 80 degrees, Dan likes it to be uncomfortably, sweaty hot, all the more reason to go into the water. Beautiful, sunny summer days will come by where I will suggest we go to the beach, and Dan will shake his head saying, "It's not hot enough."

The only time that Dan has ever suggested we take a beach vacation is when his favorite band Cracker was playing in Point Pleasant, NJ a few summers ago. And sometimes he will agree to go to Atlantic City with my parents. Cracker and gambling, that is the only thing that will get him to the beach. (Don't expect us to take a typical beach honeymoon).

But since I love the beach so much, Dan has promised that we can have at least one beach day every year, a day I like to call The Best Day of The Year.

We had bad weather this summer, so The Best Day of The Year didn't come until Labor Day weekend. The weather was perfect for me (not Dan hot) but since it's the last weekend of summer, he had no choice in the matter. Although I love the Jersey shore, it's a long day trip from the city, so for TBDOTY, Dan and I will often take the Long Island Railroad to Long Beach, NY.

After years of doing this, we have a routine. Get to the train station around 10:30. Take the hour long train ride. Visit the grocery store by the train station to stock up on sandwiches, water and fruit, and then walk up to the beach, where we will stay the day. This year, we invited our friends Nell and Adam to join us, which made the day a whole lot less "boring" than usual.

When we go to the beach, you can count on the following things:


We'll get some serious reading gets done. Here, Adam and Nell demonstrate.


Dan will get a glob of sunblock in his ear. Random parts of his body will get sunburned (i.e. one arm but not the other, a splotch on his thigh, the back of his neck etc). Never his ears though.


Yvonne will be happy!

After the beach, the four of us came back to the city, washed up and went out for a seafood dinner. It really was a wonderful day....even Dan agrees. Can't wait until next year!