Lessons Learned at the Beach

The boys and I took my husband to the Jersey shore for his 40th birthday this weekend. We spent all day Saturday at the beach boogie boarding, digging in the sand, playing frisbee and taking a walk along the water's edge. Sunday morning we woke at 5:30 and made our way down to the beach again to watch the sunrise together.

Here are some things we learned:

• Hermit crabs are supposed to live in the water and sand - not in a large cage on the boardwalk with 500 hundred other hermit crabs only to be taken home by kids who may accidentally rip off a claw or two.
  
• Hermit crabs don't come with Superman logos pre-painted on their shells. The ones you find on the beach have plain shells.
• Those little tiny clam shells that litter the beach - they are alive and if you watch a group of them long enough, they will all start to burrow into the sand together, only to be brought back up by a wave and then go through the whole borrowing process again. This is their life.
• You can get a sunburn on a hazy day.
• If you burry your feet up to the ankles in a pool of water in the sand, it's almost impossible to jump up and free your feet, and a family of four looks really silly trying to do this over and over.
• You can go to the beach on the east coast to see the sun rise over the ocean, but you can't go there to see the sun set over the ocean.
• A lifeguard stand is a great place to watch the sunrise.
• The ocean water doesn't feel very cold at 5:30 in the morning in the summer because the difference between the air temperature and the water temperature is very minimal. But, at 1:30 in the afternoon that same ocean will feel freezing.
• You can go to the beach without a load of plastic digging toys and still have a great time. Sea shells are great for digging. So are hands and feet.
• A six year old can look at the ocean and figure out things about God. 

"Mommy, I think that the earth is like a puzzle to God."

"Why is that honey?"

"Well, to us, this ocean and the earth are really huge. But to God, they're 

really small like a piece in God's whole puzzle.

"Yep." 

• If we keep damaging the earth, future six year olds may not be able to figure out things about God by looking at it.