Sox on the Beach

I brought some socks to the beach to work on today. The one on the left is Monkey, in some yummy Skinny Socks yarn from Spunky Eclectic, gifted to me on my birthday. The one on the right is some Noro Silk Garden sock yarn I got last night at Yarn and Fiber. I cast on 63 56 49 stitches and knit the cuff swatch in the 5+ hours I spent at the beach.

This is me and what my skin looks like after those 5+ hours at the beach:
This is the list I sat at this very desk and made this morning to insure that I brought everything I needed to the beach with me:

Feed Opie He is our turtle. I fed him.
chair
knitting
sunblock
water
sammich
towel
hoodie
umbrella

So I loaded everything into my knapsack that was on the list, secure in the knowledge that the sunblock was already in there, because that's where it has been for like the past month, and off I went! Got to my usual favorite beach in Rye and there was actually a line to get into the $10 parking lot. I lucked out and got in right away and got a nice shady spot on the grass to park.

Set up my camp on the sand (the place was PACKED) and reached into the knapsack for the sunblock...what the...? Yeah. I took it out last night because I took the knapsack to knitting and was afraid of leakage. I distinctly remember thinking at the time that I probably shouldn't take it out as I would probably forget about it. Well, I had my trusty beach umbrella with me, since I have only been to the beach once all summer, and that was a month ago, I didn't want to do any damage to my skin. So no sun block, no problem, right? Wrong. Apparently the umbrellas don't block all of the UV rays. And the sun reflects off the sand. And I spent at least an hour unprotected while swimming or walking. And then there was that 1/2 hour that I took the umbrella down because it got windy and blew off at one point, landing on the chair of a woman who moments before had been sleeping there and luckily had gotten up to take a dip. Oh well, it was worth it, it is a mild sunburn and I am not in any discomfort, just feel hot and not used to feeling like I am on fire. Luckily I had put moisturizer on my face right before I left the house that is SPF 15 and I had my hat on for most of the day as well, so the face was spared. Kind of.

And now it is Saturday night and I am home and I don't have to be anywhere or do anything until Monday morning! Feels good to have some down time. Not complaining - the weekends have been packed with fun activities, but it is nice to have some time to myself.