Adam and I woke up really early today. By 8:15 we were bored to death, extremely active, and we both wanted to swim. Adam made it clear that he wants to swim in the “waves” aka sea, and make a sand castle with beach sand. So I thought why not, I know sea water is hot in the summer, and sun is really strong, and that people advise to go either in early morning hours (as in 5 or 6 a.m.) or around sunset, but what the hell, I thought it was a cool idea. I mean going to the beach is fun, refreshing, and would definitely be cooler than any other outdoor activity I thought. So we got dressed, and off we went to the beach. Which was a bad bad bad bad bad BAD idea. Let’s just say it was neither refreshing nor cooling, actually anything but cool.

Water was boiling hot, walking on sand was just like walking on burning coal, and the sun was so bright and hot, with hot wind, and last but not least the irritating humidity. But the one thing I must admit is that I actually enjoyed it. I mean it was really fun building sandcastles (which turned out a bit ugly I’m afraid), collecting “shea sells” as Adam insists on saying, these were beautiful, but after spending a while sorting out the good ones to keep, I went to get a bag to put them in, found nothing as I returned, but Adam’s excited screams as he was running towards the sea caught my attention, and SPLASH, there you go, he threw them all in water, laughing like crazy… kids are innocently evil, you know! Oh and did I mention the fish? yeah, we were swimming with a few, and I was all brave and didn’t mind the fish at all, until one bit me that is, and that’s when I was all “eww” and felt really weird about the whole idea of swimming with fish.

It was also the first time (ever) I swim with my sunglasses on. I’ve always thought people who swim with their sunglasses look really stupid, and today I joined the club. The light was so damn bright I felt I’m going blind. I wondered why don’t beachwear companies make those water-resistant hats, you know the ones they make for little kids, for a second I was about to steal my own son’s swimming hat, with all the lovely shade it provided… well maybe they do make them, but I never came across any, so I just settled for my sunglasses, it helped a bit, only I, who aren’t used to wear any, kept diving in the water with them on, came out of the water to see people staring at me, must have looked really stupid, but well, they can’t expect me to swim with my head floating all the time, I mean where’s the fun about that!!

It was so hot, that we couldn’t wear our dry clothes that were in the bag, because they were so darn hot to even touch! although they were inside the bag, which was in the shade all the time. And, lol, the showers, you know those showers they provide for swimmers to wash off sand and salt, I actually screamed because it felt like torture, it was boiling, really boiling, so glad I tried it before Adam. So don’t use any of these if you go to the beach this time of the year.

We came back exhausted, and toasted, really, let’s just say that those 50+ Ultra High Protection sunscreens “especially designed for sun sensitive skin”, are not strong enough for Dubai’s sun, they did prevent severe sun burns, to be fair, but still, I feel like I was dipped in some chocolaty paint if you know what I mean, although we spent most of the time under a beach-umbrella!

I guess it wasn’t that bad, we enjoyed the 6 hours we stayed there; but I’d definitely recommend sticking to pools or early hours sea swimming, or swimming around sunset. Our skin still feels hot, which Adam seems to be enjoying. Kids go mad when they’re on the beach, and parents have to be prepared for anything… they do love everything about the sands and the waters, and the screaming and the running and the freakin splashing. He thinks he’s going back tomorrow… well, he wishes