Sandy Point State Park, Maryland (2011)

Every weekend my wife worked and I had to take care of three young and demanding kids.

I was always looking for something to do and since it was the middle of summer and blazing hot and we couldn’t afford to belong to the local neighborhood pool, I thought about taking the kids to the ocean or something. The problem was the closest you could get was Ocean City which was three hours away.

But as I studied the map, I saw this state park on the Chesapeake that was only about an hour and a half away.

So I packed up all the kids and my nephew (that makes four kids) and our gear and we drove off into the Maryland countryside.

When we got there the beach was a dark orange rough sand on a steep slope leading to oily algae covered water. There were a bunch of Hispanic and black families playing loudly in the water, smoking cigarettes, drinking booze, and grilling food.

We waded into the lukewarm water for a bit where we could feel the slimy bottom.

I think we lasted about an hour before I packed us up and got the fuck out of there.