I need a beach

I grew up 25 minutes from the Pacific Ocean. Once I got out of college, I stopped going to the beach very often. Too sandy, too busy, too much traffic on the way.

I took it for granted.

Now I live smack-dab in the middle of the US where the nearest beach is a 3-hour plane ride away, and I feel desperate for it.

My friends have told me to go to a lake.

A lake.

Sigh.

Aisling and I in Carlsbad, 2004.