Playing in the Dunes

I felt like a kid today when Jim and I walked the dunes to the west of our RV park.  I wanted to run among them and slide down their slopes.  I didn't but I did feel them with bare feet as the sand slipped between my toes after I pulled off my sandals briefly.  They are firmer than I imagined for the most part except for the edges that tumble down around your legs if you get too close to the bottom of a ridge.  Fearing we'd be buried if we ventured too close to the top edge of a ridge, we avoided testing the results of that endeavor.

They told us it was half a mile across the dunes to the ocean.  We could only see the water in the distance after walking out over what seemed like more than a half mile.  So we turned around to return to the coach only to see that our footsteps were almost gone behind us.  The wind was erasing the marks of our passage almost as fast as we had produced them.  Swirls of sand stung at the corners of our eyes and the surface of the sand sparkled with a million tiny glints in the late afternoon sun.  Little ridges formed across each rise and fall of the dunes and only a few plants cling to life among them.  They seem almost alive as the wind constantly reshapes them.  This is my first experience of walking upon dunes.  It proved to be great exercise and playing together in the moment at this place in our own private space is one of the reasons traveling like this is so rewarding.