Which is “your” beach? ;)

The only time I’ve been terrified and sucked out by a rip current happened on Kauai — and I was actually barely in the water. I went flying down the beach and grabbed my pregnant aunt’s leg (she’d been shifting her feet in the sand till she was “buried” up to the ankles in it, or we’d have both drowned, I think). Held on for dear life till it went all the way out. Weirdest thing ever. I know, in THEORY, what to do if there’s a rip tide. I’ve been lucky not to HAVE to let one drag me out and swim sideways, though I used to be fairly sure I was a strong enough swimmer to hang on and deal with it. I used to want to swim out to the shrimp boats, but my dad convinced me they were farther out than they looked — that I might get there, but I might get tangled in the nets, or get too tired to make it back. I once fell asleep on a float and the current took me about a mile and a half south. Good walk back home. Good walk. ;)