Crabs, Jellyfish, and Donuts

To start our second full day at the beach, we made the short drive to Thomas’ Donuts for breakfast to eat the best donuts on 30A. We’ve gone the last few times we’ve been here and they are truly, hands down the best donuts any of us have ever had. My mouth is watering just typing this.

After what can only be described as a sugar coma, we all agreed we needed to walk-off the donuts we just stuffed our mouths with, so we took a walk around the neighborhood and showed Sydney and Elana our beach cottages. It’s so surreal to be able to show family the houses that stole our hearts, especially the second one- the one we’ve been working on all summer. We told them our plans for each, explaining our reasonings behind our decisions along the way. I can’t wait for them to have the chance to stay here next summer.

Meanwhile, after all that fanfare, we got cleaned up and made the short walk to the beach, where we drank mimosas and helped the kids catch crabs in their toy bucket. And after squinting to see what I thought was seaweed from afar, upon closer inspection turned out to be jellyfish. Lots and lots of jellyfish floating near shore, some washing up onto it. The kids caught one in their bucket just long enough to take this picture, and then we set it back out. All the jellyfish I had ever seen in pictures and movies were always gorgeous and other-worldly looking, but these looked like big globs of raw chicken cutlets.

Also, apparently jellyfish can live forever. Who knew?

These are the days, y’all. These are the days where core memories are being made and the days that I know we’ll remember forever, and the ones I hope they remember, too. Long days spent at the beach rolling in the sand and jumping into the crashing waves. Building sand castles and catching crabs while creaming at jellyfish and getting their little bodies wet in the cold ocean.

All of it forever.