The necessities

Ok…I am almost done with the beach posts…just a little more. We always rent a house when we go to the beach and we spend most of the time right on the beach. I like to bake in the sun. Well, actually, I like to bake in the heat, but not so much the sun. I spent a lot of time in the sun when I was younger and I am beginning to reap some of that as I get older.

This year, I lathered up with sunscreen the first day but I forgot how hot the sun is at the beach. After swimming in the ocean and baking in the heat, the sunscreen doesn’t last too long. I got a lovely burn on my shoulders and knew right away I had to do something to keep from getting burned again.

We bought one of those cool party tents that people typically use when tailgating. It sets up super quickly. We anchor it in the sand and it provides a great place to escape the sun. I can’t really swim under it though so its protection only goes so far.

I wear a hat that covers my bald head. The kids wear hats to protect their scalps and that protects our delicate noggins but we needed more body protection. Emily had read about Rash Guard shirts before heading to the beach so we went shopping at the end of day 2.

Rash Guard shirts don’t allow sunlight through like a regular shirt does (I got burned through a regular shirt this time too).  It provides spf 50 protection over whatever it covers.  The ones we found at the beach were all skin tight so not everyone might feel comfortable with that but there are many styles to accommodate anyone.

The kids and I got shirts and wore them the rest of the week.  We were well protected and didn’t have to worry about missing spots on our backs or remembering to reapply sunscreen every hour.  We were very well protected between our hats, our shirts and the tent.  We now count those three items as beach necessities…

What are beach (or vacation in general) necessities for your family?