Not a Beach Bunny!
I'm Melting!
Last week my friend (Linda) and I took a day trip to Grand Bend which is located on Lake Huron, it is a lovely scenic spot. This is a wonderful hangout for the sun worshippers, beach-bunnies and the like to soak up some rays and waves. I agreed to accompany Linda on this trip knowing in the back of my mind that a hot sunny beach is not one of my personal choices to hang out at. Being that I am fair-skinned I tend to seek out shady places to spend my time outdoors. But alas I knew it would be a lovely scenic drive, this is something I have always enjoyed. I knew I would love the drive going through scenic countryside and admiring all the natural beauty along the way.
Where's My Sunblock!
Well for this trip I made sure I had my essentials those being my 60 sun-block and my large sun-hat; these are of great importance to my survival on a beach with no shade. Once we arrived at the beach and laid claim to our little piece of sand the next task at hand was to cover myself from head to toe in sun-block. Linda was gracious enough to cover my back and so I reciprocated by covering her back in a much lesser strength sun-block as Linda does tan. I on the other hand look like walking death in amongst all these tanned bodies on the beach; I look so out of place here with my almost glow in the dark white skin. My skin if not protected with sun-block quickly goes from white to pink to red. I really try to avoid getting to the point of going red as I have been there and done that many times over the years and really don't want to go there anymore!
Knocked Over By Wave
Well I decided I would go into the water to cool off which had rather big waves but being that I am a good swimmer I headed into the water. Everyone around me (mostly younger people) were jumping up as the waves came in so I too followed suit. This is quite the workout jumping up with every wave, let me tell you! At one point I was facing towards the shore and didn't see this big wave coming behind me and when it hit me it knocked me right off my feet pulling me under as it did so. I popped up above the water line gasping and coughing as water had gone up my nose I was also trying to keep hold of my bathing suit bottom which was falling down. I decided to head to shore before I lost my bathing suit for good or drowned; neither sounded too good so back to shore I trudged.
Sands Blowing
It was a particularly windy day so the sand was blowing all over covering everything and everyone in its path. Sun umbrellas were getting blown inside out and people ran around chasing after their sun-hats; I myself being one of them. We had packed our own lunch to save some money and we thought it would be fun to have a picnic lunch on the beach. When we opened our food it all got covered in the blowing sand thus giving it a gritty taste and texture, so our picnic did not turn out quite how we had hoped it would. I then mentioned that all was not lost suggesting to Linda that we take a walk and check out the shops; knowing that she loves shopping as much as I do. Well this seemed to cheer us both up so we started to pack up our beach supplies looking forward to walking up to the shops.
Sun Umbrella Used as a Cane
While trying to stand up in the uneven sand I managed to sprain my ankle; at which point I had to sit myself back down being unable to put any weight on my injured ankle. I put a frozen bottle of water on it to stop it from swelling and took some Tylenol for the pain. I massaged my foot as I sat there hoping I would be able to hobble off the beach sooner than later. Finally I was able to get up on my feet using the sun umbrella as a cane by this point we had our fill of hanging out with the beach bunnies of Grand Bend. Linda went to fetch the car so I wouldn't have to walk too far; as you probably figured out we didn't make it to the shops but instead high tailed it back to the steady solid ground of the city.
Summary:
When I got home I had to shower right away as I was literally coated in sand. I have to say my 60 sun-block worked great; the only place I was burned was on top of the foot I sprained. I figured the sun-block must have been rubbed off while I was massaging my injured foot. I now have the one red foot to remind me that the fact of the matter is I am not beach-bunny material!
