Catch A Wave (Day 4) [a.k.a. The Rain Rain Rain Came Down Down Down]

Tuesday started like any other day, with a walk to the beach, where we set up our area a bit closer to the ocean than previous days in an attempt to prevent people from blocking our view. This was to no avail - we had an hour or two of clear view, which was soon interrupted by a herd of adults and children who spread out directly in front of us. To their credit, they did set up their stupid tent to the right of the area rather than straight before me, but yeah. The fact that they had the damn tent at all was pretty irritating.

They did build this spectacular sand castle, though, so their presence wasn't a total waste.

The morning's sun didn't last too long before the clouds rolled in around noon.

The rain wasn't far behind.

With the rain came a rather cool breeze, so we covered ourselves in dry towels to stay warm.

These towel blankets were soon converted to umbrellas.

We were sure that the rain would blow over soon. We were wrong - after about 20 minutes of sitting under towels and umbrellas, protecting cell phones and books and leaving the rest to get soaked, the thunder and lightning started. All of the remaining beach-sitters took off like bats out of hell to get off the beach back to their cars and homes.

I took this opportunity to make bacon. Except we couldn't get the stupid oven to work, despite this brain trust working on it. (And by "working on it," I mean "doing everything I had done again.")

After the bacon fiasco (which resulted in me having to cook the stupid stuff in a pan on the stove, which is not my favorite method since Ken showed me how to cook it in the oven), we settled down to relax. Some of us in our new seersucker jackets.

The rain continued throughout the afternoon.

When we weren't watching the spectacular It's Always Sunny In Philadelphia on DVD, we watched the rain come down. In rushing, rising rivlets. (Notice my super cool Mediterranean White beach towel. I swear, Vera Bradley makes the best freaking beach towels.)

We were surprised to see that our street was entirely flooded for the majority of the afternoon.

By dinnertime, though, the street was clear again. Which was good, because David had to leave after dinner to go to work the next day. Sucks to be him.

After David left, we headed to the Boardwalk, which was much clearer than earlier in the day.

We visited a number of stores. Some sold good shoes,

and some sold bad shoes (which would be Crocs. But I was denied permission to use the picture I took of my mother looking at the Crocs. I say it's because the shoes are an abomination, but she says she doesn't like the face she is making in it. Said picture could be shared, though, if the price is right).

Also, during my hunt for postcards to send to the cool kids, we discovered a store selling live creatures. Now, many stores sell hermit crabs (some of which had shells painted like Superman, which is super duper cool), but not so many sell the neverending frog of doom. A word of advice - do not buy one. It will not die. Or at least, it'll take over a decade for it to do so. And it will become cannibalistic, sadistic, and possibly suicidal/dog-eating. And yet, my mother watched them intently like she wanted another one.

After we pried my mother away from Frog Town, we headed back home, where we played Scrabble, and then retired to bed, hoping the next day would be a bit sunnier and less full of stupid people, bad shoes, and hateful amphibians.