Check One Off the List…And Learning Lessons. By RR

This one is a little long but it is a good read! Here goes...

This past Sunday we checked out our first church in the area. It came highly recommended by a local family that we know. Let’s just say we will be moving on to check out other churches. The people…talk about friendly. There were several people that were very helpful and gave us directions. One lady even told us to meet her after first service so she could take our kids to their youth service. IT was remarkable. However, the service style was just a little too different for our liking.

Saturday, the kids and I had quite an adventure. First, we went to one of the local surf/skate shops. We got to talking to one of the kids who works there, Matt. He told us about some of the beach spots we needed to check out, now that we are “locals.”

So we proceed to a spot that sounds fun and easy to get to called The Inlet. This place was not quite as crowded as some of the beaches we have been to. The tide was way out so we had to walk quite a way to get to the water. We put all of our stuff down and all four head for the water.

The kids all have boogie boards and I opted to body surf. The waves close to shore (inside) were choppy and small so Veronica and I started looking toward the waves that were farther out (outside). They were still very choppy but a little bigger. Hunter and Cole were still messing around together—so I thought—on the inside waves. The water where they were was knee to waist deep.

Veronica and I are pretty far out but I can still touch. In fact, the water was only up to my chest. I turned around to look for the boys and I could still see them. Hunter was a little farther out than Cole now but I didn’t think anything of it. When I turned around to talk to Veronica she was probably 20 yards farther out than before. I realized that V and I were caught in a rip-tide.

I grew up at the beach so I know what to do in the event of a rip tide. Lesson 1: Do not panic! Lesson 2: Do not swim toward the shore while being sucked out to sea by a rip-tide; you will get tired of swimming and die. Lesson 3: Swim parallel to the shore until you are no longer being sucked out to sea. Lesson 4: Swim to shore and collapse on the beach realizing you almost just died—Okay I made that one up.

SO calmly I call out to Veronica to start paddling her board parallel to the shore. I don’t think she realized what was going on…I don’t tell her. As she paddled, I swam to the north. We were making headway and pretty much out of the rip tide. We both turn around and look at were we had just come from when we see two heads and two red buoys coming toward us. TWO LIFEGUARDS WERE COMING OUT TO RESCUE US!

Vern and I felt fine. We were no longer in peril. We weren’t tired or panicked or anything. We looked at each other and said, “Oops!”

The lifeguards got to us and asked if we were okay. We said yes. They told us we were in a dangerous spot and to go into shore. We apologized and thanked them profusely. We were really embarrassed because we didn’t feel like we were in any eminent danger. Veronica thought one of them was really cute.

Anyway, the other lifeguard disappears and about three minutes later we see him towing someone else on a boogie board in from where we had just swam from. IT WAS HUNTER! He tried to follow Veronica and me out to the bigger waves. What a ding-dong! Cole was still wading around in the shallow water. He knows his limits.

After that, the kids and I congregated on the shore as the lifeguards kept going in after people. I told them that we need to realize our limits and that the fun can turn into danger in a matter of minutes. I reiterated the rip tide rules with them and pointed out to them that the Lord had protected us from anything serious.

We decided that we had had enough excitement at The Inlet for one day. We weren’t quite ready to go home yet. So, we finished out our beach time at our normal crowded beach where the waves were calmer and there were no riptides to be found.

Will someone reiterate the sunscreen rules with me, even though I grew up at the beach. I covered my face, neck, and nose and that’s it. My shoulders arms and chest got fried. Now who is the ding-dong?! We learned more than one lesson that day, didn’t we?