An afternoon at East Beach

I've decided that East Beach is my pick for most kid-friendly beach in the Hampton Roads area. Here's why:

• It has a quiet, residential vibe.
• It's not crowded, even on a Saturday afternoon at the height of summer.
• There is ample (close! free!) parking in the neighborhood near the beach access on 19th Bay Street.
• The breakwaters keep the waves at a manageable, toddler-friendly height. 
• The bottom is smooth and sandy and shallow enough for a little one to do some serious off-shore exploring.

I think the only thing that could possibly make it better would be a public bathroom in the vicinity, but as my kid's still in diapers, I'm not making this a priority. Next summer, maybe I'll be singing a different tune. 

James, Anne, and I spent a few hours at East Beach today with some friends and our toddlers, who also endorsed the beach very highly. It was Baby Anne's first official beach trip, and while she was a little apprehensive of the big water, she enjoyed holding court in her beach chair in the shallows, as you can see from the pictures above.

As you can also see, the clouds got kind of nasty, and it did eventually start to rain. We all took shelter under our towels and umbrellas and watched it come down for a while. Have you ever been at the beach while it was raining? I hadn't--it was more pleasant than I expected. The water was speckled with raindrops--people up and down the beach hunkered down under floats and boogie boards--but a few intrepid souls kept swimming. We watched one man float for a long time. He didn't seem to mind the weather at all. It was so interesting, and I ached to take pictures but wasn't quite brave enough to expose the camera to the elements.

Of course at the first rumble of thunder we ran for our cars. (Luckily, we didn't have far to go).

We'll be back soon, for sure.