Seth at the beach, tar balls, holding Blake

We made it to the beach yesterday. I made sure we got there early in our visit because Seth, my nephew, has never been to the beach. It is hard to imagine that he has never seen the ocean, heard the waves or smelled the salty air, but he had his first adventure in the salty water yesterday evening. It was beautiful. The sand was warm, the water was warm and the air was blistering hot, but it was the beach.
There was some degree of disappointment, thought. As we got out of the car and headed to the beach we got blasted by the smell of the rancid oil that has been released into the Gulf of Mexico waters. I have worked for many years at a refinery so it was a familiar smell to me – one I did not expect to get at the beach in Navarre, Florida.
We went ahead and got in the water in spite of the smell and the seaweed that was thick in the water from the storm that had just passed through. But it was not as much fun as it has been in the past so I was a little worried that it would be a bad experience for Seth but he made the best of it.
It was only when we were looking for shells that I got to see how contaminated the water might be. There were almost as many tar balls as there were good shells. It was not so bad that there was a tar ball in every scoop but they were very obvious. If they were handled they left a slight scum of oil on your fingers and I found several places on my legs that had oil tar smears because I had been kneeling in the sand to search for shells.
My daughter and her husband will not allow their kids to go the beach because of the contamination and I have to agree that that is the wiser position to take right now; at least until we have been given the full story about the possibility of the range of effects of exposure to the decomposed oil. If those who are cleaning the tar balls off the beaches must wear protective clothing, how much sense does it make for each of us to expose all of our skin surface to the potential dangers?
On the good side, I have gotten to hold my tiny grandson many times in the past couple days and that is a real pleasure. Mama and I never had one that small. But he will grow up too quickly and our memories of his little bitty frame will be just that, only a memory. But it will be a good one.
We will take pictures tomorrow so it will prove our memories in the years to come and prove an embarrassment to little Blake as he slowly grows into a man. (Hopefully, we will be able to see that happen.)