Family Trip-Day 4

Today we went to a place called magic sands beach. When the tide is high and the weather rough, like in winter, the sands disappear from the beach, sucked out further to sea by the current, and reappear in the calmer weather. I didn't take any pics because by the time we got there it was packed and I didn't want to take my camera out where it might wander off. It was a very small beach, but the sand was soft, white and powdery--the kind you picture when you think tropical getaway.

The drawback, for our little ones here, was that the surf was pretty strong. Ginny and Aviendha totally avoided the waves, but really had fun with the sand. But, for the beginning boogie boarder, it was great. Adam had a lot of fun sailing in and out of shore over and over and he figured out how to get the board thing down. Sharra and Sam both had fun with it. Since Sam had his boarding debut here, I was sad not to have my camera to capture it. He kept going for several tries; until he got dumped really hard. Then he just spent the rest of his time chasing Sharra and Adam into shore.

Sharra returned again and again to the water to try, even after a couple of hard spills. Both Adam and Sharra got their knees bruised by rocks buried in the sand along the shore, but said it was so fun that it was worth it!

After dinner that night we wandered down the street in front of our condo to see what we could see. We found a Scandinavian Shaved ice shop that we decided to try. It was fun to watch them make. They have big circular blocks of ice, like they'd frozen water in ice cream buckets, that they put on a rotating press. As the block spins very fine shavings fall into the cup. The workers pack it together like a snowball and then put whatever flavors of syrup on it you want. We were tame and chose Strawberry and Cotton Candy (that was after talking the kids out of grape, root beer, blue raspberry mixed).

We sat at a little beach across the street to eat it. Adam was a thinker ahead of time and brought disposable cups and spoons from the condo, so we could split it up for the kids to each have their own. It worked out well and we all have bright red tongues and lips after!

We took some time to explore the shore before the sun went down. Up on the pier wall we discovered the far side to be covered in little black crabs. On our way home the kids started pointing out things they wanted for their souvenirs. We decided we'd keep looking and narrow it down and in a few days, we'd do our shopping.