What I Learned from Tommy Bahama

                                      

I just spent a glorious four days at the beach with my amazing cousin/sister/twin Paige. Great weather. Warm Pacific water (which is unusual). Lots of time to just sit in comfy chairs on the sand and talk our heads off. Which we did. Nonstop. For four days. I think we shut up just long enough to eat some delicious food (Phil's clam chowder, Corralitos sausage, Zelda's on the patio).

But back to the comfy chairs on the sand part.

Those are the chairs, above in the picture. Two Tommy Bahama blue beach chairs. They look like ordinary beach chairs. But don't be fooled. These chairs did much more than allow our butts to rest comfortably six inches off the sand. These chairs were metaphors for life. Or similes. I'm not going to commit to one or the other. In any case, these inanimate objects taught us a few things.

For starters, we were fairly loaded up with gear as we began our trek down to the beach. We had towels, books, drinks, a beach bag and of course the chairs. That's a lot to carry, the chairs being the most awkward part of the load. As we tried to negotiate how to carry all of this down two flights of steps, Paige took a closer look and realized that the tangle of straps protruding from the seats were actually backpack straps. Lesson number one: when confronted with a dilemma, take a closer look. A solution may already be sitting right there if you just turn things around and look at them from a different angle.

We pulled open our chairs and settled onto the beach. Beautiful day--partly cloudy, waves rolling in, and that salty ocean air! And it got better, because drink holders! You expect them in your car, but when you get one on your beach chair--well, come on--that makes you smile!

We actually did not put beers in our drink holders. We had a couple of cans of LaCroix water. But either way, important life lesson number two: keeping hydrated, especially when you're out in the elements, is SO DAMN IMPORTANT that even Tommy Bahama is trying to make it easier for you.

And that little pocket next to the "hydration compartment"? It's for your phone. At least that's how we interpreted it. It was the perfect size, and it velcroed shut. It's two lessons in one (maybe?): communication is important enough to warrant a coveted spot on the chair, but also put the phone in the pocket and velcro it shut for a while. You're at the beach. Enjoy.

The chairs also had a built-in pillow and reclined back. Life lesson number five was a bit more obvious: when presented with the opportunity to relax, take it. Life is full of stresses that you have to deal with on an ongoing basis. If relaxation rudely interrupts, go with it while you can.

We had a really great day on the beach. The sun came out. Paige went in the water! We read our books and stayed hydrated. I headed back upstairs a little earlier than Paige, but left my chair down there as I thought we might watch the sunset from the beach later on. But then it got windy and chilly, so Paige ended up bringing the chairs up by herself. Not an easy task when you can't get the chairs to fold back down. Which brings us to our last lesson.

Here's what the chairs look like when they are all compacted for carrying:

Getting from this

 

to this



is no easy task, I'm here to tell you. Paige tried and tried to fold the chairs down, but they wouldn't cooperate, so she carried them back up to the house in their fully expanded condition. She's a trooper (also, she's not a complainer but that's a whole other blog post, which she absolutely deserves).

Anyway, we did eventually figure out how to get the chairs collapsed, but it quite literally took two of us to accomplish this, each of us pushing and pulling on different parts of the chair. I suppose one person might be able to do it by herself with difficulty, but it would most definitely be easier with two people working together. And that's lesson number six: teamwork gets the job done.

Who knew a beach chair could teach you so much? But maybe that's the bigger overall lesson-- you can learn from anything if your mind is open to it. And it helps if there's a cup holder.

Stay hydrated!