beach trip...in march

i finally downloaded the pictures from our outing to the beach earlier this month and thought i'd share a few so that you all can yearn even more desperately for summer. we took a city bus out to new brighton, just five miles east of our home in the city but a longer distance than we've cared to walk since ending our time on the trail. this little day trip was our response to a few long weeks of church projects, a sunday afternoon set aside for holding hands barefoot in the sand and remembering that we're still on vacation.

our first stop was the new brighton mall, an outdoor shopping area that was apparently the place to be on a saturday in the 70s and 80s, where we picked up some fish and chips to go. actually, i suppose i should say "for takeaway", as that's the way we've learned to word it here. "have here or for takeaway?" it's funny how so many of these fish and chips shops also specialize in another cuisine; i'm not sure how much i trust the grubby places advertising fish and chips and indian or fish and chips and mexican. not that there's much of a special technique associated with battered and fried food...

we then popped in at the beautiful new library that overlooks the beach and serves as a focal point for the mall. i flipped through the oxford project for the second time while relaxing in an armchair facing a window of glass. beautiful. jutting out into the ocean from behind the library is the new brighton pier, which at one point in time housed the kinds of carnival attractions that tend to spring up in seaside towns, but has since been torn down and rebuilt as a straightforward walking pier.

the original idea behind this beach trip was to walk the 6 or so kilometers up the coast to a pretty forested area, but the combination of warm sunlight and full bellies led us to nap on a sand dune just a mile from the pier instead. we laid there for the better part of an hour, watching the land windsurfers roll by on their skateboard/sailboat contraptions and scrutinizing the curious movement of sand on a sloped surface.

it was a wonderful way to spend an afternoon, and we wanted to share it with you all, so we scrawled you a message in the sand. in case you didn't happen to spot it before the tide washed it back into the sea, we took a picture:

-rachel