Umbrella Approach

I had taken a book to the beach, but confess I ended up doing very little reading.  My attention was captured by the varied approaches to setting a beach umbrella.

There's the cocktail approach - where the designated umbrella handler stabs the point of the umbrella pole into the sand much as cubes of meat and cheese are poked by a toothpick.  I was fascinated that someone actually expected the umbrella to remain upright after being thrown into the sand like a dart.

Then I watched the mountain approach. Here the umbrella handler wiggles the pole a full five inches into the sand before piling an additional five inch mountain of sand around the pole in the hopes of creating stability.

As proven by Saturday's high winds, neither of the above methods are favorable when wind speeds top 15 mph.  I was privileged to witness some truly impressive acrobatic feats as beach goers leaped and pirouetted over neighboring beach chairs and blankets in an attempt to capture airborne umbrellas. Watching one slight woman struggle with an umbrella as wide as she was tall it occurred to me that Disney is about due for a remake of Mary Poppins.