The place we’re in is not near as nice as the place we stayed in the past few years.  The beaches have a lot more people and you have no where to have a clean view of the beach without having to look over the people in front of you.  There are rude kids everywhere throwing sand and running into you.  There was a family of five kids just in front of us that had their radio jamming where everyone within a five mile radius could hear it.  The five kids all played paddle ball just in front of us and my son got hit several time with their wild hits.  The umbrella that they used was tossed in the air by the winds and I nearly got impaled through the chest.  At the days end I was not a happy camper.  I was ready to go home.  Not to the room but home.  I had enough.

I wanted to get to the beach earlier but my wife, who by the way knows everything, informed me that the chairs would not be available until 9am, (our room has complimentary beach chairs). I was not going to argue with her.  In a perfect world the chairs would be waiting for us at 9am but we don’t live in a perfect world.  I looked down and saw all the people heading to the beach before 8am and I knew what was going on.  Of course, I arrive at 8:30 to find that all the front row chairs were already spoken for leaving only the second row.  I put my belongings down next to an empty chair and sat in the other waiting on my wife to arrive.  When she did her first words were, “Why are you sitting back here when all these chairs are empty on the front??”  I politely informed her that those are already spoken for and that we should have gotten down there earlier.  She hates being told that she’s wrong.

To put things in perspective.  The place may not be as nice and it may be more crowded than the other place but we are here at the beach and I’m on vacation.   I had to bite my tongue several times today because I didn’t want to add to an already bad situation.  Our family has had several bad experiences and of course I’ve made it worse by saying something when I should’ve just kept my mouth shut.  So, I’m trying to exercise some knowledge that I’ve gained over the years.  The safety of my family is first and foremost on my mind.  I will say something when I feel that the wellbeing of my family is involved.  Otherwise I will just grin and bearing it.

Tomorrow is our last full day down here at the beach.  My plan is to get to the beach early enough to sit my big fat butt on one of the front row benches and reserve one for my wife and I.  Hopefully the family of five kids will be on the other end of us and I won’t have to worry about being impaled by an umbrella.

“Life is Good!”