Trip to the Cove!

 Yesterday, Mom was having some friends over for dinner, so she was going crazy cleaning the house and cooking enough food to feed 20 people, even though she only had to feed 10. She was totally frazzled and very on edge, so Zoe and I decided it would probably be best for us to get out of her hair. It was a hot day, so we decided to bike down to the cove and go swimming.

Well, the moment that we got there, we realized that swimming wouldn't be an option, unless we wanted to walk out across the mudflats for a few hundred feet, and then go swimming in the few inches of mucky water that was left behind when the tide went out. We didn't want to do that (well, Zoe did, but I didn't let her), so instead we decided to go exploring on the rocks.

Here are just some pictures I took of the cove as we were coming down the path.

We left our bikes in the bushes at the end of the path, and climbed down the hill to the water.

 

At the bottom of the hill, I had already started down the grassy path towards the rocks when I heard Zoe cry from behind me, "Charlotte! You have to come see this!"

"What?" I asked. I found her standing next to the shell of a massive horseshoe crab.

"Whoa! That is HUGE!" I cried, staring wide-eyed at the shell. "It's kinda creepy, though."

"Are you kidding? It's awesome!" Zoe said. "I dare you to touch it!"

"Ew! No way!" I told her, backing away from the crab on the spot. Zoe laughed, but followed me away from the shell.

We walked off down the grassy path towards the big rocks in the distance.

  We had to climb over a bunch of loose rocks - all covered in bird poop - to get to the end of the path.

After we had climbed over the rocks, we came to a muddy little path surrounded by marsh grasses and dotted with flat stones. I hopped from rock to rock to make my way along the path, not wanting to get any of the greenish mud on my converse sneakers. Zoe, of course, had no trouble with getting mud on her footwear, and charged right through the mud without a pause.

When we emerged from the muddy path, we were faced with a very tall boulder.

I found a place to put my foot, and started climbing.

Hooray! I made it to the top!

On another side of the rock, Zoe was climbing up too.

Zoe wobbled as she neared the top, and I reached down to grab her arm before she could fall back to the ground.

"Let's take a break," I said, out of breath from the climb. "I think there's a place where we can sit over there." I pointed to a bench-like indent in the rock a few feet away.

I suddenly had an idea. "Let's pretend we're ship captains!" I said excitedly to Zoe. "We could pretend that we were being attacked by pirates or something!"

"Count me out," Zoe said, climbing down from the bench and to a small tide pool a few feet below.

"Aw, come on, it'll be fun!" Zoe just rolled her eyes.

I peered down over the rock at the tide pool, which Zoe had just reached. There was some seaweed, a few periwinkles, barnacles, and some clam shells sitting around in the water.

It didn't look all that exciting, so why she'd rather look at that than play pirates, I had no idea. Oh, well. I could play by myself.

The wind kicked up as I sat on the rock, which made it all the easier to imagine that I was on a big merchant's ship, leaning into the railing at the bow with my hair and my skirts whipping around me, just like Kate Winslet in the Titanic. I could almost hear the waves lapping at the prow of the boat, could almost smell the salty ocean breeze.

I turned to look behind me, where, to my horror, was a pirate ship, gaining fast on our little vessel.

"Pirate ship to starboard!" I yelled, pointing a finger in the direction of the right side of the boat. The crew sprang into action. The pirates were now almost side-by-side to our boat, and were beginning to board us, swinging from boat to boat on ropes like monkeys. Swords clashed, people yelled, cannons fired -

"Charlotte!" My eyes snapped open, and I saw Zoe standing in front of me, waving her hands in my face.

"What?" I groaned, disappointed as I always was at being awoken from my world of pretend.

"Where's the food? I'm hungry," she said.

"You're always hungry," I sighed. I picked myself up from the rock and Zoe and I made our way back to where we had left our bikes and my backpack. We sat down under a tree a little ways away to eat.

I had barely taken a single bite out of my apple when I heard a clap of thunder. I looked up.

A big black storm cloud was hovering above us. Just as I heard another rumble of thunder, I felt a drop of rain on my head, followed by another, and another.

Zoe and I looked at each other just as a flash of lightning lit up the sky.

"Let's go!" I cried.

We raced up the incline to where our bikes were, and pedaled furiously for home.

We reached home just as the downpour started, so we got to finish our picnic inside as we watched the thunderstorm outside the window.

It makes me sad to think that summer's coming to an end. As excited as I am for school to start, I'd rather summer stretched on for another month or so! :) Did you have a good summer? What did you do? 

That's all for now! Thanks for reading!