Beach Trip to Corolla

The weather around here has been absolutely bizarre the last few weeks.  We went from snow on Kasia's birthday to the upper 70's by the end of the week.  It's 80 one day and 40 the next.  

Fortunately we had a beautiful weekend recently, and we did what any sensible family does on a nice day.  We went to the beach.

One of the beaches that I had never been to since living here is the beach up in Corolla.  It also happens to be the only beach in the county in which we live and pay taxes in.  So we decided to take a trip down and see what our beach was all about.

As I should have known, it was gorgeous.  The center piece of Corolla is the old Corolla lighthouse, which remains in its original, unpainted state.  Of course, since this is the off season, the whole place was closed and we couldn't climb to the top or anything fun like that.  But on the plus side, since it was the off season, there weren't any crowds to deal with.  

So we wandered around the lighthouse for a little while before heading across the street and spending some time collecting sea shells on the beach.  Kasia had been talking all winter about how she wanted to go to the beach, and she finally got her wish.  She even wanted to walk in the water, despite the fact that the temperature of the water was around -2 degrees.  She just loved it.  Kara hated it.  And I was too big a wimp to get my feet wet.  I mean, it was freezing.  

Then as the waves kept getting higher and higher, Kasia became obsessed with making sure our shoes and things didn't get wet.  She kept picking them up and moving them high and higher on to the beach.  

After we got all the sea shells we could carry, it was time to have a little ice cream and enjoy the rest of the afternoon.  Easier said than done however.  Apparently most of the ice cream shops in town are closed during the off season, and finding a scoop of ice cream turned out to be a rather difficult task.  We must have stopped in five different places before we finally found a coffee shop that also served ice cream cones.  

Now, as I look outside and see it rain, and know that it's in the 40's again, I find myself longing to go back to the beach again.  Hopefully next time we'll have an easier time finding some ice cream.