As Always

 "When was the last time you were at the beach in summer?" I asked Heidi as we stepped into the warm sand.

"Last year, when I went to Rehoboth," she reminded me. "What about you?"

"I was just trying to figure that out," I told her. "I think it's been over ten years!" 

In fact, it has been 11. The last time I visited a beach in the summer was in August 2013, when Heidi and I took Isabel down to Point Lookout for the day. The last time I was at an ocean beach in the summer was three years earlier than that, when most of the family met for a week in August in Edisto, SC.

Since then, I've visited the beach at Thanksgiving, in February or March for the Oscars, in October when Heidi had a conference there, and in November for Heidi's birthday. I've been to the beach at least 20 times, just never in summer.

There was a cool ocean breeze blowing this afternoon when I made my return to summer at the beach, and overcast skies kept the temperatures below blazing. Still, there was a crowd of folks on blankets and chairs under umbrellas and the inescapable smell of sunscreen as kids ran back and forth to the surf. Super tan people clad only in bathing suits and sunglasses walked the waterline, expertly avoiding the boogie boarders that came crashing in on the waves.

It was as if nothing had changed in the last decade, and there was honestly something kind of nice about that.