Beach Day

We don't like to travel on holidays here, since everyone else does, but for Easter weekend the weather was so good that we couldn't resist the pull of the beach. We took off Saturday early (8am is early for the beach) because there was no commuter traffic and arrived in record time.

Rex got comfortable right away with his construction vehicles.

Mommy and Dancing Princess Leia made an ice cream sunday complete with "sprinkles."

Then Belle actually tried to eat it. Gross!

We dug the obligatory beach holes and then proceeded to fill them up with people.

First Dancing Princess Leia.

Then Belle.

She even requested a pillow.

The boys went out to play in the waves. Which were HUGE!


And the girls rode the sand on the boogie board.

This picture was taken right before Belle pushed Leia off and a little fight ensued.

We had lunch around 10:30, since there was so much pressure from the nearby lanchanete. Yummy, yummy beach food: French fries eaten with toothpicks and cheese and pizza filled pastels. MMMMmmmmm. These are the remnants.

The beach was more crowded than we usually see on our weekday non-holiday outings, but it made the views more festive. These are a few of our beach neighbors. Interestingly enough, we ran into the family that lives on the 3rd floor of our apartment building as we were leaving.

Small world, big beach.

One of the favorite views on the beach is of the kite salesmen. These guys have five to seven kites up in the air on one string and walk the beaches. Quite a sight. This guy had airplanes, too.

Like I said, the waves were GINORMOUS. There were at least five waves coming in at a time.

And the farthest out were the biggest.

The boys were not daunted, however, and spent about an hour out in the water body surfing and enjoying the waves.

Another favorite beach food is the cheese. These guys walk around with coolers of skewered cheese and a little grill and cook it on the spot. In order to get the fire going, they spin the grill around and that is a sight to see.

We had noticed that the water was a bit higher on the beach when we arrived and attributed it to the early hour. Then, while the boys were out in the surf and the girls were eating the remnants of lunch, the water got higher. The wave just kept coming and coming. I picked up the backpack and stepped on the water toy bag and told the girls to stay in their chairs. The water got about a foot deep and took everything that floated with it down the beach. All our shoes went floating away. A few buckets and beach balls, too.

Everyone was in the same boat, though. People were grabbing and saving whatever floated past them. Once the water receded, there were piles of salvaged shoes, hats, buckets, towels, clothes and even cameras scattered along the beach. I was amazed when I was approached by random people asking if things were ours, and what we were still missing. Our neighboring umbrellas brought back toys they recognized as being ours and after all was said and done we got back ALL our shoes and toys.

It was like magic.

I love Brazil!

The amazingly high tide, combined with our three non-swimmers, led us to abandon the beach earlier than usual. We hit the outdoor shower, took the obligatory "kids on the dolphin statue" pictures and headed home.

It was a fun trip with just enough excitement and no sunburns (except for mommy).

We even got back in time for a few of us to take naps and then go out to our favorite family restaurant.

Note: We found out later that most of the beaches from Rio to wherever (including ours) were closed due to high tides and dangerous undertows. Good to know.