I feel sometimes like I was born to live by the beach. Would it shock you if I told you I've only been to the beach a couple of times? I know right?? It's so sad I want to cry. So I had this great idea, until we can make it to a real beach (10 hour drive, two kids... maybe someday) I thought we might just hit up the Salt Lake beach on Antelope Island. I'd shot a few engagements there and I thought I remembered it being beach-like. So, we brought tools to make sand castles, a blanket some snacks and a couple of books to read. Silly me, I had all of these visions of us just spending the day on "the beach"... Utah, you suck at beaches. Honestly, we should have known something was up when on the brochure you get when you pay to get in, it said this "Biting Gnats have just hatched, no refunds because of bugs". Wait, what? Biting Gnats? They weren't kidding. Man had they just hatched. Getting closer to the water, on the precious sand that I wanted to turn into a castle there were thousands, I kid you not, maybe hundreds of thousands of bugs. Walking to the water was like parting the red sea, and it was yucky, you should have seen Lily as I dragged her to the water. Between that and the dozens of bird carcasses littering the shoreline Kyle about summed it up by saying, "What a strange place..." However strange it was, this place photographed BEAUTIFULLY. I kept wondering why there were more people with floaty toys than cameras, because this was not the place to swim, this was the place to take gorgeous pictures and high tail it out of there.
We left with my heart aching for a real beach and Lily commenting over and over that the "bug beach" was not the right beach, and that maybe we just took a wrong turn. Don't worry kiddo, we will take you to the beach some day and your heart will sing... and so will mine. But for now we can look at these pictures and pretend.
Haha! The bugs... I have wanted to go to Antelope Island. I've even thought, oh, it might be fun to camp there. Until I remembered the mosquitoes. But biting gnats? I had never heard of them. I love that term, "the bug beach". Yes, it may be yucky, but you are right, those are some gorgeous photos! I still want to visit, despite the bugs. You have to go and float the Great Salt Lake once in your life, right?
ReplyDeleteAs usual, your pictures are gorgeous!! you can't even see those yucky bugs. I've been there and can attest to parting the red sea of bugs-- GROSS! Also, Go TO THE REAL BEACH. San Diego is only a mere 12 hours. Do we need to talk about the time I drove there by MYSELF with three kids (one was a 4 month old baby). It can be done. DO IT! come on do it. do it. ....do it. (<--movie quote)
ReplyDeleteVery pretty pictures! And yes, I agree with the above comment... 12 hours is worth it. It's really not that bad -- it's just time and you're there! Better yet, watch for airline deals. You could stay with Nick down there, they love having guests --esp. family- come to visit. Your story reminds me of the time Uchi and I thought we could make the sand dunes in Malad enjoyable. It didn't happen there either, it was awful!
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