The Flowers Explore - Atlantic Ocean Picnic and Drive - 2021/09/22

Just a quick one today. Despite all their travels, Rich and Chi have never been to the Atlantic Ocean! 

Our campsite is less than 10 miles from the beach, so we've got to fix that today! 

We put together a picnic lunch, piled into the car, and headed to the beach. Since it's Wednesday around noon, it's not busy here at all. 

But that also means that the local shops are also closed. We're not getting that "boardwalk" kind of feel with everything being closed. 

Hey, there's my playland!

It's a bit overcast today, but it's warm. The kids got right to work digging in the sand. 

Lunchtime! There's a nice breeze coming from the water, so I dug a water bottle into the sand and attached a kite to it. These things fly themselves!

Everyone enjoyed their trip to the beach. 

As randomness would have it, my brother, his wife, and their daughter are also visiting the Atlantic Ocean, although they are in South Carolina. 

I thought it would be fun to FaceTime them and we'd all stand in the Atlantic Ocean at the same time. We're only separated by 900 some odd miles. 

We got a little distracted and got splashed and soaked from a random big wave. 

The kids love their kites from Kitty Hawk North Carolina. 

To round out the day, we drove up the Massachusetts and New Hampshire highway 1a, which follows the Atlantic Coast. There's the usual beach shops selling cheap t-shirts and other discount souvenirs. There were also food stands selling something called Fried Dough. Looking at pictures, it's just like you might expect. A long strip of dough, fried, and covered in your choice of topping, like cinnamon and sugar, butter, apples and cinnamon, and lots more. We didn't stop, but I was certainly tempted.

Driving a little further, we came to some beautiful mansions. 

What a gorgeous view! This would be a great sight to wake up to every morning.

It was a fun outing to get over to the beach with the grandparents.