Daddy and I decided to take the kids to Manasquan today.  It was our first time to the beach since Hurricane Sandy.  We bundled the kids up and packed them in the car.  In the car, we reminded John about how the hurricance destroyed houses and the beachfront.  We also talked about Gee-Gee’s.  For those of you that don’t know, Gee-Gee’s is a pizza place where Daddy and I met in high school.  We both worked there during the summers.  Gee-Gee’s is very important to both of us, not only did we meet there, but we spent countless hours there.  A lot of our memories revolve around that building.  John knows Gee-Gee’s as The Pizza Man (simply because employees wear t-shirts with a man holding a pizza).  Anyway, after reminding John that there may be some damage to the places he knows, he said “We can help clean up!”

We arrived at the beach.  Daddy and I wanted to see Gee-Gee’s, John on the other hand was more concerned about the big piles of sand.  He kept saying “I’m going to the top of the highest mountain!”  I really didn’t think anything of it, and said go ahead.  Then I turned around and noticed that one of the piles of sand by me had glass on it.  I didn’t think.  Those piles of sand came from the streets or even from in front of Gee-Gee’s where glass and all kinds of other debris were inside of them.  I didn’t let John climb the piles by the boardwalk.  I took Gillian and John farther onto the beach so that they could play in the sand.  John was totally interested in all the debris in the sand.  Pieces of wood and wire and anything else.  We specifically told him and Gillian to not touch anything.  They ran up and down the piles of sand and even found a couple of shells.  After playing for a little while, Daddy and I put them back in the car and we drove to the inlet.

When we got to the inlet, John and Daddy started to walk along the rocks.  Since I had Gillian, we stuck to the beach.  We sat and watched a few surfers.  Then Gillian saw John and Daddy on the rocks.  She pointed to them and said “I go there!”  The rocks at the inlet are big and sturdy enough to walk all the way out, but carrying Gillian I was a little unsure.  I took her and walked along the rocks for a little bit.  She kept pointing to John and Daddy, who were about 20 feet ahead of us.  We ended up catching up with them and I handed Gillian off to Daddy.  I grew up in Manasquan, but I had never been that far out on the jetty.  Once Daddy head that I had never been out on the jetty, he made it a goal to get all the way out there.  I stuck with John for the second half.  He really got me worried.  The rocks are big, but there are also some big spaces between the rocks.  John would jump from rock to rock and all I could envision was him falling into the cracks.  He didn’t fall.  He did a great job, but he did get Mommy a little worried.  We made it all the way to the concrete at the end of the jetty.  And stopped to take a few pictures. 

I took Gillian on the way back and Daddy took John.  I’m thankful that I had to carry Gillian, because on the way back, the wind started to blow really hard and I almost fell a couple of times.  Daddy had to deal with the wind and a little boy.  Overall, we had a great day at the beach.