I do hate sand.
As some are aware I too live in NJ and I live on an Island and ever year all kinds of crazy people come to my island to swim at my beach and walk on my boardwalk so much that I stay locked up in my nice ac house until the day after labor day when all the crazy’s are gone. And yes we have a name for the crazies we call you BENNYs it stands for Bayoone, Elisabeth, Newark, and New York. The saying is BENNY go home. If you have ever heard that you have been to my Island or you have been watching MTV. But if you still don’t know the name of where I live I’ll give you one more clue.
I kid you not this picture was taken 2 blocks from my house.
I used to be able to see that coaster the “jet star” from my front porch.
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I would never have picked the beach even at that age. I hate the beach. I hate sand. I hate going in bodies of water occupied rightfully by the citizens of the ocean.
LOL. The sand comments crack me up because I always would have told you I hated sand. I probably came by that honestly at one point in my life, but now I love sand. Like really love it. I love it so much I put sand INTO my beach bag before we leave so I will see it some time here and then the ear of the year.
I don’t just lie in the sand. That would be boring. We build sandcastles galore. And bury one another. We sit side by side under the umbrellas talking together and watching the kids throw frisbees. We hunt for shells. Then we start it all over again. 
I brought red sand home from Prince Edward Island.
It’s a running joke that mom needs to be in the ocean once per calendar year. I had a trifecta of sorts when I got to play in North Atlantic, Caribbean and and Pacific in an 11 month window. 
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I should hate sand more than I do.
Once, we thought it would be a great idea to spend the day at the beach on the Big Island, rinse off in beach showers and fly back to the mainland on the redeye.
I am here to tell you, beach showers are utterly inadequate. After 18 hours and three flights I had sand in places where sand shouldn’t be.
Why I don’t hate sand is really beyond me. I guess I figure it wasn’t really the sand’s fault.
Honestly though. You got to hang out on the Big Island as long as possible. That’s totally worth it.
Beach showers stink.
Last year after Santa Monica Pier I had epic parent fail by suggesting instead of each messing around changing back into clothes when we were “only” 40 miles away.
We ended up stopping at a community park somewhere and changing into clothes and eating at a Pizza Hut til the traffic dropped some.
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Hahaha. Once, we were in Hollywood and thought 4 hours was plenty of time to catch a flight at LAX. Hahahaha. Joke was on us!
I thought only people from out here made the mistake of thinking miles=minutes.
Actually, here it’s miles>minutes due to 80 mph speed limits. DS21 still struggles with the concept of “traffic” even though he goes to school near DC. He has had many a near miss on catching flights home.
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Block Island, Rhode Island
Anyone who calls the Long Island Expressway the “world’s largest parking lot” (as did my Father) has obviously never been on the 405 in LA.
We’d had numerous warnings, but I truly don’t think it can be fathomed until it’s experienced first hand. I’ve had gridlock before - into Pigeon Forge on a Saturday afternoon… PA during summer construction… Toronto at 5PM. But this beat all of that together.
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A few years ago, we went through Pigeon Forge/Gatlinburg on our way down to Florida so that the kids could see the Smokies. We hit the gridlock you are mentioning. But eventually our navigation unit at the time took us along some side streets. And by “streets”, I mean twisty, windy roads barely wide enough for more than a single car that went up and down at angles worse than the streets of San Francisco. It was harrowing. BUT, we did get past the gridlock significantly faster!
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We went that exact route last year because Hurricane Florence closed the airports in NC and we were trying to visit our daughter who lived there at the time, so we drove over from Nashville. We had no idea what we were getting into (not the hurricane, the town). Adding to the misery, there was a car show at Pigeon Forge as well.
You don’t want to know what DH was calling the place by the time we got through. I was in stitches, it was hilarious, he was so furious but it’s a bit of an odd name, too. The numerous vulgar iterations of the name Pigeon Forge cannot be forgotten. After we were through it, we must have laughed for 10 minutes straight! Good things the kids weren’t along.
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Seaside!! I spent summers at Point Pleasant as my dad managed Jenkinson’s Pavilion – he was a guidance counselor during the school year, then we’d pack it up and go! My sister lived on LBI for 12 years, but Sandy did her in…
I grew up in Toms River and my wife lived in point. My grandparents had a house in Beach Haven luckily it was sold the year before sandy.
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