Last Fall, after being quarantined for several months, some friends and I took a trip to the beach.
We packed my car full of cold drinks and car-friendly snack foods, put on a playlist and hit the road. When we got to our destination, we didn’t even bother checking into the hotel, we just parked the car and went right to the beach. After a few beers, we realized that we had been in the sun for several hours, and forgot to put on sunscreen, and much to our dismay we all had pink shoulders and stomachs, ripe with burns from the brutal beach sun. Once we finally made it to the hotel, I took a shower and then slathered my skin with aloe vera, and before I laid in bed I turned on the air conditioning, and immediately felt it’s cooling touch on my ravished skin. The air conditioning in the hotel was magical, not only soothing my seared skin, but the cool air also calmed my nerves and helped me relax to a level I’ve never achieved before. The next day at the beach was much cooler, more clouds in the sky meant the sun wasn’t shining as bright, and the wind was blowing cold air onto the shore, which fet nice on our sunburnt bodies, but once the sun started to set, we started to freeze in our wet bathing suits. Since we only prepared for Summer beach weather, we ran back to the hotel and cranked the heater. We were still shivering from being so cold at the beach, the heater provided much needed warmth to our bodies, giving us a cozy space to watch movies and enjoy the rest of our vacation.