Sandy Feet Welcome?

Have you ever seen those signs that people have up in their homes, “Sandy Feet Welcome!”?  This isn’t true, right?  I mean everyone loves the beach and playing in the sand.  We love having drippy castle competitions at the beach, whoever can make their drippy castle the tallest wins (mine usually gets demolished by Conor the Castle-Wrecker).  The sand is great to bury friends, loved ones, perhaps even strangers!  Writing in the sand is so much fun too – tic, tac, toe and names.

But do you really want all that sand tracked into your house?  I certainly do not, and my hardwood floors aren’t even in that great condition.  I just don’t like the feel of sand under my feet when I’m not at the beach.  It is funny there was a huge article in Coastal Living about a home that had a sand floor.

From Inside Out in Coastal Living Magazine, May 2011

It looked beautiful in the photograph and I can understand how they wanted to bring the calming effect of the beach inside, but I can think of nothing worse.  Imagine tracking all that sand to another room in the house or worse into bed?

When we get out of the car and unload all the beach toys and gear, I’m so surprised how much sand we’ve actually brought home.  With all the sand on us and every other family – how does any stay on the beach?  You have to wonder about this.

Each year we discuss doing an outdoor shower and this will be our 3rd season here without one.  We used to use the hose method, but this year (thanks to a friend’s idea) we fill a huge bucket (you know the kind you use for BBQs at your house) and then we dunk the kids in it when we get back from the beach.  John and Conor love splashing in the water and don’t even want to get out and dry off.  Fingers crossed we are able to put an outdoor shower in next Summer, but this hasn’t been a bad alternative if we have to wait another year.

Our outdoor shower!