Getting back is hard to do

It was hard to believe, when my alarm went off at 6:15 this morning, that only yesterday morning we were undertaking that overburdened-by-beach-bags, heat-drenched, glorious clamber up the dune path--legs pushed against the slipping sand, bag handles dug into flesh. And then, just when we couldn't bear it a minute longer, the sand fell away and there was the sea in front of us, now gray, then green, then a tease of blue. [more]