Beach Etiquette

It was mentioned to me that I haven’t updated my own blog in a while, and here I am bugging others to update there’s. Hypocrite, I know. I’ve got a week left of summer school, and I’ve been taken phys 116 (calculus based mechanics). Let me give this piece of advice: never take physics over the summer. I’m even busier now than I was during the semester, and that’s saying something. But once I’m done, all I have to do is work and travel. The weekend after I’m done with class, I’m going down to the beach with my Grandparents. That brings me to the real reason of this post: Beach Etiquette.

Over Memorial Day weekend I was down at the beach and several things happen that went against what I thought to be "practiced" beach etiquette. But I guess not everyone is taught these things. I’ll state the two problems that occurred, and see if you can spot the error.

1. I’m sitting on the beach, with my Mom and sister, and we have a wagon set up behind us. There aren’t that many people on the beach yet, plenty of room around us… but then this “red-neck” family comes out of the blue and pitches camp right next to us. And by right, I mean less than 4 feet away. If I wanted to, I could have angled my chair towards them and practically been in their semi-circle setup. See the problem?

This is beach etiquette rule #1: if the beach is empty (or fairly empty), don’t set up camp right on top of your neighbors. They don’t want to hear about your truck, nor do they want to know about Aunt Sally’s knee surgery.

2. We’re out on the boat, anchored on a small barrier island in the sound. There isn’t much of a beach on this little island, that’s part of why we picked it, since we were clamming. The next island over is covered with boats, as it has a larger beach. Again, out of the blue comes another boat, and what do they do? They try to park their boat right next to ours. Right next to it, so close that they actually hit our boat during their attempt to anchor. It’s not as if there wasn’t plenty of water around, but nope, the place where our boat was had to be the best spot. See the problem?

Now we have beach etiquette rule #2 (or boating etiquette rule #1): If there is plenty of room at the island where you want to stop at, don’t park right next to the only other boat there.

Which leads to beach etiquette rule #3(or boating etiquette rule #2): Don’t be an idiot driving your boat; it’s the same as a car for hitting someone else. Know what your doing and everyone will be happy.

That’s all I have for now, I’m sure I’ll be adding to this as I spend more time this summer at the beach.