Alex Gazis
2/10/08
English 3
Nature Essay
As I get older year by year and month by month, I look back on all the good times I had in my childhood. Nature was always a big part of growing up for me as I was fascinated by the many different essences nature brings. As I think back now to my first experiences involving nature I remember going to the beach in Cape Cod when I was four years old. The name of the beach was Sandy Neck and I remember my dad driving us into the parking lot in our red Ford Explorer. When I first stepped out of the car I remember that I was not wearing any sandals on my feet and the sun was scolding hot, so hot that when my bare feet touched the tar I jumped back into the truck until my mom came and put my sand shoes on my feet. On our way down to the beach my dad made me carry my own sand bucket and shovel, which were very small, but almost the size of me at the time. My brother and I walked next to each other between my parents on our way from the parking lot to the beach. We walked over a wooden bridge that brought us onto the sand, I could feel the heat radiating off the soft sand as I walked farther along the beach. There was a strip of rocks, which hurt to walk over, and we walked down into the very shallow water and continued walking onto a giant sandbar, like our own island of cool moist sand in the middle of the ocean. The water was very cold and sent a shock through my entire body when I first checked it with my brother, and we decided to stay out of the water for a little while. My mother forced sun tan lotion onto my skin, which felt ice cold as it was applied. I really liked playing in the sand at first I felt safer, as my first encounter with the water was rather shocking. My brother and I took our buckets and our shovels and shoveled holes in the sand bar that refilled with water; once we filled our buckets with sand we flipped them over to make sand castles. But I was then angered by how my sandcastle immediately fell apart, and my brothers sand castle stood up. I relieved my anger by stomping on my brother’s sand castle. My mother saw that my brother and I weren’t having fun playing in the sand, so she grabbed our hands and walked us out towards the water. At first, I resented touching my feet in the water, but my mom comforted me as she held my hands and I saw a lot of other people playing in the water. After we crashed into the waves for a little while, I felt the winds gust making me a little chilly, so my mother, my brother, and I came out of the water. I was feeling a little hungry along with my brother, so we asked my dad to get some food to eat. He brought my brother and I up into the parking lot where there was a small place selling food. I wanted ice cream, I saw a picture of a Scooby Doo ice cream bar and I really wanted it. My father bought the ice cream for me and I remember taking about four licks of the Popsicle before it melted all over my hand. When we went back down to the beach I walked down and I noticed that the cool and moist sandbar I had begun to like out on the water had disappeared. I was very sad, because the other sand was very hot, and not nearly as fun to play with. My parents told me that it was the different tides changing, but I didn’t understand. They thought it would be best if we left and headed back to my grandparent’s cottage. My first nature experience was like a big adventure. It opened my eyes to a whole new world, because the beach became one of my favorite places to go throughout the years, and I still love going to the beach.