Today I decided to take my kids to White Rock beach. It was supposed to be really hot here, so we were looking forward to the sea breeze, the cool water, and the long stretches of sand to play in.
With four kids, preparing for the beach is not quick or easy, but--with the kids' help--I made sandwiches (particular to each picky eater) and packed snacks, filled water bottles, gathered towels, put sunscreen on everyone, remembered hats and sunglasses, and packed up the trunk with boogie boards.
I even remembered my phone cord so we could use Google maps and not get (too badly) lost.
With construction on the roads, it took just over an hour to get to White Rock, but everyone was in good spirits, listening to The Wiggles and Elton John (the only two CDs in our car), and pretending to be characters from Lord of the Rings. We drove past the places where I grew up, and I repeated the stories I tell the kids every time we go to White Rock.
When we got to the actual beach parking, we opted not to take the stroller--this was our first time being so brave, but as everyone grabbed the backpacks and boogie boards, beach towels and water bottles, I couldn't help thinking this was the smoothest trip we'd ever taken to the beach.
We'd parked close to the pay station, so we all headed over . . . and that's when I realized I'd forgotten my purse--and WALLET--at home.
I noticed that the pay station had an option to pay with a cell phone, but I didn't have a credit card with me--or any other kind of card. I called Jason, and while I was talking to him came up with the solution that I'd just take the kids to another beach--one that the kids didn't like as much but that might have still had free parking. (Jason was more worried about how much gas we had in the van, but luckily it was almost full).
A woman was standing nearby, waiting to pay for her parking, so I told her to go ahead of us and laughingly said I'd forgotten my wallet at home.
But when I was buckling Eric back into his car seat, she came up to me and asked if she could pay for our parking. I told her no--we would go somewhere else--but she insisted repeatedly that she wanted to do this for us.
Finally, I just thanked her, and let the kids come back out and enjoy a day at the beach.
(As much as that is possible, knowing I didn't have their care cards if they got hurt, or a credit card if we overstayed and had to have our car towed, a debit card/cash to pay for our traditional ice creams, or my driver's license if we got pulled over for any reason on the way home!)
But it was truly a wonderful day of playing in the sand,
splashing in the warm, shallow water (since the tide was way out!),
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| Eric was singing songs from "Moana" |
pulling Eric around on a boogie board,
laughing and having fun together--
really one of the best times we'd ever had at the beach. . . .
all made possible by a stranger's kindness to us.
Hopefully we can do the same for someone else one day!
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