Wait. . . Wait. . . Now! Dang it. No bar again.

I've been spending the past few days wandering around the beach looking for bars. No, not those kind. There were plenty of the kind that serve drinks, just no cell phone service. So thus no blog posts for the past few days. I have to admit that I didn't look very hard, because hey, it was the beach! And you shouldn't have to work very hard at anything at the beach. So I just laid around and relaxed and enjoyed relaxing and being in charge of nothing. No, really! I did too relax. In my younger days I was a type A who couldn't unwind, but I firmly believe now in taking time to do nothing.

The beach we went to was on Galveston Island because it was my family reunion. It was a lot of fun, mostly because Sister 3 did all of the planning and because we all, OK really me but I think mostly everyone, love the beach. We got in a lot of swimming both in pools and in the ocean and no one got badly sunburned, which is pretty amazing given that all of us are pretty fair and most of us are redheads.

I know you are wondering how a bunch of redheads can go to the beach without burning to a crisp and the answer lies in our expert sun-avoidance routine.  You see, when you are a redhead who loves the beach, you need to get very comfortable with wearing more clothing at the beach than you might on an ordinary day. You see, while most people wear as little as possible to the beach, and some people wear far too little, I am dressed like this.

OK, not exactly in polar gear. But remember where red hair occurs naturally and the weather mostly looks like this.

Or often like this.

Not exactly a lot of sun in those pictures. So you can see the need for sunblock, and a hat, and UV sunglasses, and a rash guard, and board shorts. (OK, the shorts are just to hide my thighs.) But thankfully, we made it through an entire summer and nobody got really badly burned. Except for fabulous Niece 1; she looked a little lobsterish. I hope she is feeling better now.

Here is what is not better than a brownie--driving across country and only being able to eat half of a meal at the restaurant. Fast food has not caught on to the gluten free movement and here is what I can eat at Subway: nothing. And Arby's: a box of meat. And Cracker Barrel: the carrots and green beans. Child 3 and I had a moment where we both broke down in frustration and hunger and disappointment at yet another menu with nothing on it that we can eat. We're still not used to this life, so we hadn't thought to stop at a grocery store and stock up. Also, we were in a rush to get back so I could go back to work where I still don't have half the computer access that I need. Ugh. So having a box of meat was sometimes the only option, and not a good one, I might add. And if I have to eat plain Fritos again for another meal, I might just scream. 

But one more thing about our beach trip; at least this didn't happen.

That is a hover craft landing on a beach in Russia. Apparently your typical day at the beach there, and no, that's not photo shopped. "Jonas", watch out for random military landing crafts while you're there! I'm not so sure I really want to bid on Russia if this is normal for the beach.