The Beach and the Oil Spill

We thought long and hard before deciding to go to the beach this weekend. All the press coverage about the oil spill and what that would mean for the beaches left me wondering what it would be like, and if we even wanted to spend the money to go. But, we hadn't been to the beach in a couple of years, and we figured that there should be plenty to do down there besides the beach, if it came down to it. In the end, we got in plenty of beach time, and just a little bit of oil. For those who are curious, here are some examples of what we saw:

Ships installing boons

The Coast Guard looking for oil spots

Regular, oil-free seagulls

Lots of people swimming and playing on the beach

A few tiny coin sized tar balls

We were on the beach for four days and some days had more tar than others. On the morning that we left, I had a hard time finding any tar at all. The tar that was present was small and easily washed off the feet with dishwashing soap. It was no more of a hassle than watching for jellyfish when you walked. The photo to the right shows a piece of trash covered with tar. TJ named these spots tards because they look like.... well, you get the idea.

We also saw volunteers riding and walking up and down the beaches looking for something to clean up. It turns out that most of the rumors that I had heard, oil covered beaches, terrible smells, and so on, were mostly not true. More than anything, what we saw the most of when we were at the beach was this:

SMILING FACES!!