A ROMANTIC BEACH PICNIC

Last evening, we went to the beach with friends, our bikes, and a picnic supper. We ate on a table overlooking the Atlantic, and though it had been 100 degrees earlier, at five thirty a stiff wind whipped up, and we had to hang onto our napkins so they wouldn't blow away. With the waves hitting the beach in the background and pleasant conversation with good friends and my man at my side, I felt so blessed.

After we ate, we hopped on our bikes and took off through the 450 acres of the oceanfront copse of trees, winding through the camping sites and down by the lake and children's water park, then finally, back to where we started. We had on swimsuits under our shorts, and so we headed down to the water. Sandra and I plunged in to our knees because the water was chilly but the guys sat down on the beach, elbows in the sand, talking. It was twenty to eight by this time, and though the sun was pretty high in the sky there were no swimmers as far as my eye could see, and the lifeguard chair was vacant.

I heard the duh-duh duh-duh duh-duh duh-duh tune of the Jaws song ringing in my ears, and I thought of novelist Davis Bunn who'd recently been attacked by a shark in these very waters, and my overactive imagination kicked in (I'm a writer, remember?), and so I only went up to my waist. Besides, the undertow was pretty strong by now, and I'd always heard to swim in pairs, and nobody wanted to swim with me, so I passed.

I hope we can go back Saturday. I've been yearning to swim in the salty ocean water for weeks now, but we've been so tied up.

Milton and I swim and bike and walk, sometimes in unique places, and we get to do exciting things (like next week when he's taking me to a B&B in Savannah for a couple of nights for our anniversary). Jennifer, our daughter (Its All About Him), says all the time, "Mom, y'all get to do such neat things." She's tied down with two babies in a condo (she does, however, live in the Caribbean), but I always encourage her to find some alone time with her husband. When she and Julie were little, Milton and I always managed to do this. We'd get a babysitter and go out to eat, or walk around the lake, or just go to the public library and sit together and read, something we enjoy doing.

It's important for couples of all ages to do things together.

Alone.

That's why he's taking me to Savannah.

He said, "I want to go somewhere where it's just you and me, so we can concentrate on us." He took me to a B&B on Amelia Island (Florida) last August, and we both look back at those few days as a revitalization of our marriage. Not that it was bad. But people tend to get busy, and life seems to take over. So now, this may become a tradition every August.