The Land of Beach

Posted at 9:30 AM, Sunday, February 17, 2008

After dinner last night, I packed the kids in the car, and we drove twenty minutes to West Beach, just five minutes west of the airport. It had been the first really hot day in a while, although by 7:30 p.m. the temperature was falling below 90. I have learned in recent months that on days like these, the beach is essentially its own country--quite divorced from the weather conditions just over the dunes. You walk up the path from your car, pass over the short hill that separates the parking lot from the beach, and something marvelous happens: the temperature drops 10 degrees, and you are hit by a steady cooling wind from the south.

On this warm night, the beach was dotted with visitors, and the parking lot was unusually full. Nadav ran straight into the water, which proved to be freezing cold. Yonatan soon joined him, and the two spent half an hour or more riding or leaping over waves while I shivered in the surf. Then we headed back to land to get warm. Nadav rolled in the sand, while Yonatan went straight to work building sand castles. By now, the sun had set, and a small collection of cirrus clouds was making for an absolutely glorious sunset. I kept drawing the kids' attention back to the sunset so that they wouldn't miss out, and they were quite appreciative. As the light began to ebb, and I dragged them back to the car, sat them on towels, and we headed home for showers and havdalah--the ceremony that marks the end of Shabbat.