I'll tell You What I Want, What I Really Really Want...

I want to finish the April A-Z blog challenge...Day 2-I'm on my way...

B is for Bethany Beach

Okay, so you might have been expecting a more exciting locale but it's only Day 2 of the challenge so don't be knocking Bethany Beach. We spent several family vacations here with friends and my girls will say those holidays were some of their favorites.

I already told the story of how we had to run from the law in this little beach town one memorable 4th of July so I won't retell that now but, if you need details you'll find them here.

We rented the same house in Bethany about a block from the beach four years in a row. It was in this little Delaware hamlet that hubs and his partner in crime (J) earned their nickname-The Pack Mules. Four girls and two mothers need an awful lot of gear hauled to and from the beach every day.

The guys had a routine- get up, make coffee to go cups, load the chairs, umbrellas, shovels, towels, blankets, coolers, fishing poles, tackle boxes, noodles, rafts, and buckets onto their backs (hence their nickname) and then walk one block to the beach to stake our claim. The beach tended to get crowded as the morning wore on and we didn't like to have people on top of us so the Pack Mules developed a strategy. They created ginormous and interesting sand sculptures every morning while they waited on the fish to bite. These sand sculptures were something to see so people gave them a wide berth and thus, did not crowd us. This one is a giant seahorse and scallop shell...

The girls enjoyed construction too. If they weren't in the water they were building houses.

Literally...this is Daughter1 relaxing on her sand couch after a hard day's dig. We used to joke that we were going to hire the kids to move mulch when we got back home because let me tell you, these girls moved some major sand.

Late afternoons were spent playing games, working jigsaw puzzles and napping-

At least once during the week the dads would take the daughters to the pier to check out the catch of the day. They loved it...

Some evenings we'd visit the boardwalks in nearby Ocean City or Rehoboth Beach where caramel corn, Dippin Dots, and arcade games were all part of the fun.

Other times we'd hang out on the beach, eat pizza, fly kites, fish, and pose as The Spice Girls...

circa 1998

The Spice Girls were big back in our Bethany Beach days. In fact, we may have a pose from every summer holiday spent in Bethany...

Several years after our last Bethany Beach vacation these same friends came to visit us in the UK. We all went to Belgium for a long weekend, and while it took a little coercion, we did manage to convince the girls to recreate the old days in the middle of Brussels's Grand Place. They went along with it because they were pretty sure no one they knew would be watching.

Whoever would have guessed I'd have a blog one day?

circa 2004

Brussels also starts with B so I think it's okay to include this picture here.

The girls now in their 20's may think otherwise.

I promise you that not all of my posts in the A-Z will be about little girl days.

But some of them will.

Nor will all the posts be this long.

But they might because let's face it-I'm wordy.

I didn't have a blog when my girls were young so I use my blog as a keepsake of sorts. I'm pretty sure summers at the beach are memories worth keeping.

If you'd like to join the blog challenge click the A-Z button on my sidebar for more information and linking.