Ocracoke Waves on Squarespace

We  have been hitting the beach regularly the last couple of weeks.  We do not often go during the heat of the day for anything other than pictures.

Most of our walks take place later in the evening.  By visiting the beach regularly we get to see the beach community at its peak and when most people are cleaning up for dinner.

It occurs to me that mostly we see isolated communities on the beach with little interaction similar to the picture in the post.  I can actually remember going to the beach and looking forward to meeting new people.  We often stayed in a small home a block or so from the beach.  It was not unusal to meet some people over the week.

One summer I camped for several weeks on Ocracoke Island.  I enjoyed meeting people from different areas. I am sure there is interaction still going on between those isolated beach communities but I doubt it like what we had when we were kids.

Some of the families we see on the beach have their whole extended families with them.  The beach time is family time. Often it is the only time that cousins and family members get to play together.  In our case we looked forward to meeting new people at the beach because we were tired of haning out with the same relatives all the time.

I guess it is just a sigh of the times that beach time has become family time.  It makes sense since families are so geographically dispersed.  I am sure mixing still happens at the young adult level.  My youngest daughter found the love of her life in a beach trip.

The beach isn't a bad place to get to know someone.  Of course I think the beach is a great place to live so I am a little biased.

Here are some photos of our most recent perfect day at the beach.  The good news is that the water is warm down our way and the people are very friendly.