Beach Day!

As the kid’s summer school break comes to a close (they start back on Monday, woohoo!), some of the other Honda moms and I decided to take the kids out for a beach day. Poor Honda hubbies had to stay home and work. We went back to Ibaraki prefecture where we normally get our beach fix, but this time we decided to go to a different beach called Oarai Beach. This beach is vastly bigger than the Hitachi Beach where we usually go. It was long and wide with ample room to easily social distance.

As the kids and I were unpacking our beach gear, a filthy little cockroach decided to jump in the back of our car! I quickly tried to shoe it out with my shoe, but I missed and it scurried away under the seats. We have still not found said cockroach. Those things refuse to die so I doubt the Japan heat in our car killed it. As far as we know, it’s still alive somewhere in our car…waiting to crawl on one of us…ah!

While I was setting up our cozy spot on the beach, Caroline and Nathan ran off with their friends to explore their surroundings with one of the other moms. We also saw about 8 or so jets fly over us. They were so loud and Nathan was so mesmerized.

In the tide pools they found clams, rather large seashells, and a starfish! Caroline also found herself a whole sand dollar that she would later color when we got home.

After exploring, the kids were excited to get in the water! I thought Caroline and Nathan would be a little timid getting into the water…NOPE! They both pretty much jumped right in. One of the other moms brought along a couple of boogie boards and let both Caroline and Nathan give them a go. Nathan did it a couple times and loved it before he realized how close his face got to the salt water. Caroline, on the other hand, was a natural! After a few tries, she got the hang of it and was quickly chasing the waves with her board. She fit in well with the numerous surfers that surrounded us.

We had such an exciting and fun day at the beach! We were sad that Justin had to miss it, but definitely plan to bring him here next time. Oarai Beach is, by far, our new favorite and we can’t wait to come back. The kids played so hard today and were so exhausted when they got home. I have never seen Nathan get upstairs and into his bed to take a nap so fast in my life.