Three Girls and a Beach Umbrella

Recently, my two best friends and I went on a trip to the beach. We brought all of usual stuff girls bring to the beach: too many clothes, too much food, and various necessities for hanging out in the sand all day. It took us three or four trips to get all this stuff in the condo. (I used to ask myself why we bring all this stuff, but I once went to the beach and packed everything in one carry-on suitcase, and that answered the question for me - it's ALL necessary.)

Our first day there, it rained, so no beach for us. On the second day, we woke up and the sky was cloudy, but the sun was trying to peek through, and we loaded up all the stuff in the wagon and headed for the sand. Once we dragged the wagon and the cooler through the sand to our desired spot with a perfect view of the ocean, we put up the umbrella.

We have this awesome sand auger umbrella holder that digs deep into the sand, making the umbrella more secure. One of my friends and I twisted and twisted that auger until it wouldn't move another inch. (My friend works out 4 days a week and is very strong, so it was in there good.) We placed the umbrella, secured it in the holder with the screw, and settled in for a nice, relaxing day.

The wind was blowing. Suddenly, the wind blew the umbrella out of the holder, and it tumbled and bounced its way over the sand and into the water. My strong friend followed. She grabbed the umbrella and fought the wind to carry it back to our spot, and we giggled at our misfortune.

This time, we dug a hole before we put the auger in, then we twisted the auger into place until it wouldn't budge. Again, we placed the umbrella and secured it with the screw. We piled sand up all around the auger and packed it down. Then, we settled back into our chairs.

Not long after that, a big gust of wind came up and blew the umbrella out of the holder again. The umbrella bounced and rolled toward the surf, and my friend finally caught it. After retrieving the umbrella, we again laughed at ourselves, and then we heard giggles from the couple sitting behind us. I looked back and said, "I bet we're very entertaining!" They nodded in agreement. Then, we began the task of securing our windblown umbrella for the third time. We dug deep into the sand and placed the auger in, then we twisted the auger into place and packed sand down around it. We secured the umbrella with the screw, and packed sand around the holder and on top of it. Then, for good measure, we moved the beach wagon in front of the umbrella, and braced the cooler in front of it. There! As we stood back and beamed with pride at our ingenious handiwork, I glanced back at the giggling couple, and the man held up a thumb giving us a "thumb's up". We settled into our chairs again, and enjoyed the rest of our day in the sun.