The Beach Part 1

We went to the beach last weekend with family and had a lovely time. On the way to the beach, I pulled the car over to pick up some locally grown fruit at a farm. The fruit was delicious! They were juicy, sweet and devoured quickly.
I love my little ‘fruit piranhas!’

Also, on the way to the beach, I pulled the car over to pick up something I really didn’t want

a speeding ticket.

My sweet husband usually does the long drive for us. But, this time we drove down separately, as he had to leave the beach a bit earlier than we did. I don’t mind driving and I was secretly excited as I could decide what music/story to play on the radio/tape player! My husband loves music, Loves Music!!!
When we are to drive anywhere over 20 minutes, he thinks there must be an iPod playlist to go along. Actually, when I first met him, there was hardly a thing he did that didn’t require music to accompany him. I thought that was funny. So since music is his passion, I usually leave it to him. The only problem is that he has a much broader, eclectic taste in music than I do and our music tastes either don’t overlap as much as we would like or the music that we do agree on has been way over played;

Sorry; Sting, U2, Colin Hay, The Monkeys, and B-52’s.

So, I’m cruising with these big sunglasses on, a 1950’s scarf tying my curls back, snacks in hands reach, the two little ones in the back and we are singing along to a kid friendly tape (yes, I said tape). I thought I was going the speed limit but the area I went through dropped 10 miles lower without me noticing.

Oops!

The officer was nice, I was embarrassed and the kids were curious:

Why are we stopping? What does that police officer want? Is he carrying a weapon? Can you turn the music back up? Can we go now? When will be at the beach? Can I have a snack? What is a registration card?

This is my first speeding ticket. Wow, I made it this far being a good citizen. And the first time I get a ticket, I get to share that experience with my kids.
Lovely!

As I am patiently waiting for him to bring back my license, registration and my little ticket, as well as fielding questions from now squirmy kids: my cell phone rings. It is my mother-in-law checking in. I was too embarrassed to tell her I was sitting in the car with her grandchildren waiting for my speeding ticket.

After the nice officer gave me the ticket I sped off, just kidding, I slowly pulled back onto the road and decided to turn this situation onto an educational experience. Conversations followed like: “Well, boys, the reason we have speed limits...” and “the police officer was doing exactly what he was trained to do” and “it is great to be reminded of the rules that we must follow” and on and on as the blush slowly faded from my cheeks. The boys were satisfied with my explanations and quickly became distracted as we approached the beach and all was soon behind us.

And, yes, rules are there for a reason.

And the rule for this beach trip was to have FUN!
And that we did!

I was a little relieved when my husband told me, after teasing me about it for two days, that he almost got a ticket in that very same place.

Now, how do I work this ticket into my scrapbook page of us at the beach?