{"id":1335,"date":"2016-08-11T01:34:57","date_gmt":"2016-08-11T01:34:57","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/kmccullough.com\/kblog\/?p=1335"},"modified":"2016-08-11T00:08:00","modified_gmt":"2016-08-11T00:08:00","slug":"two-types-of-beach-trips","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/kmccullough.com\/kblog\/two-types-of-beach-trips\/","title":{"rendered":"Two Types of Beach Trips"},"content":{"rendered":"

It\u2019s almost old news now but back in May I\u00a0spent a week at the beach with a large group of family members, including my husband, sister-in-law, oldest daughter, her two kids and her daughter\u2019s current boyfriend, and my youngest daughter, along with her husband and three small sons.<\/p>\n

\"Beach_1\"

Three small boys playing at the beach<\/p><\/div>\n

Let\u2019s count \u2013 a husband, a sister-in-law, two daughters, a son-in-law, five grandchildren (two grown and three under the age of five) and one boyfriend. Yup, including me that\u2019s twelve people.\u00a0 Fortunately it was a big beach house with more than enough room for everyone to sleep comfortably, but that\u2019s still a lot of people.<\/p>\n

Most years my husband and I do two kinds of beach trips. The late spring version with all of the family who can come, which is what this one was. In the fall, though, we do a quieter, just-us version, usually with just\u00a0the two\u00a0of us and my sister-in-law.<\/p>\n

Need I say that they\u2019re two completely different experiences even if the location remains the same?<\/p>\n

A beach trip with the whole family is a riotous and noisy affair, filled with non-stop action, including a lot of\u00a0time spent chasing after toddlers and playing with them in the sand.\u00a0 (None of the three small boys would go near the ocean.\u00a0 We had to get a small wading pool and fill it up in the yard of the house or on the beach but just below the dune to get them into water.)<\/p>\n

\"Beach_2\"Meals are huge and complicated as we juggle feeding small children and a horde of adults with different tastes and food preferences. Everyone pitches in to help, but the kitchen, while large, will only accommodate so many people at a time. But we\u2019re fortunate to be a family that has good humor as the default setting and tends to take everything in stride.<\/p>\n

On the other hand, our adults-only version is much of a restful and restorative experience. With just the three of us, there\u2019s time for long walks on the beach, reading, sitting around staring at the ocean with a glass of wine in hand, more reading, some writing (for me), lingering over good food, and just unwinding. I come away from it refreshed and recharged.<\/p>\n

Both are good times. Both include plenty of sand, surf, and good food. I\u2019m grateful to have the opportunity for each.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It\u2019s almost old news now but back in May I\u00a0spent a week at the beach with a large group of family members, including my husband, sister-in-law, oldest daughter, her two kids and her daughter\u2019s current boyfriend, and my youngest daughter, …<\/span> Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[62,1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1335","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-travel","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/kmccullough.com\/kblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1335","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/kmccullough.com\/kblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/kmccullough.com\/kblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kmccullough.com\/kblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kmccullough.com\/kblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1335"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/kmccullough.com\/kblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1335\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1338,"href":"https:\/\/kmccullough.com\/kblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1335\/revisions\/1338"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/kmccullough.com\/kblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1335"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kmccullough.com\/kblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1335"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kmccullough.com\/kblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1335"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}