Which sounds better to you?

• 1 adult, hauling 13 pounds of towels, chairs, umbrellas, beach bags, shovels, buckets, kites, sunscreen, sunglasses, water, juice, spare clothes, and a beach book (which she hasn't read more than 10 pages of since becoming a mother) across the hot and shifty sands of an Atlantic Coast beach, while herding a precocious toddler in front of her ….

- or -

• 1 adult, carrying a single beach bag in one hand, holding the toddler's hand in the other, gliding across the silken sand while being fanned and spritzed with cool mist, thinner than she was in college.

Yeah, me too.  Ok, mostly that's on target, if you are planning a couple days at the beach and feel like doing what we do - renting umbrellas and chairs for the week and letting the beach shack attendants set them up for you.

It saves a heap of hassle - and I am forever grateful to her godparents for setting the good example in Rehoboth.  We've done it every year since, and it is well worth budgeting for.  Additionally?  Your spot on the sand is staked out for you long before things get crowded.  All very civilized.

Some places, like the Congress Hall group in Cape May, even have beach toys.  But then, they also rent cabanas to guests for $$ an hour.  Me?  I'll take the cheap seats, close to the ocean. 

And the thinner thing.  That would be fine too.