Are You Beach Ready? Summer Beach Travel Tips

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[00:00:16] Nasreen: Welcome back to another episode of Time to Talk Travel. Today we are talking all things beach. The beach.

vacation or lake vacation is such a popular thing during the summer, going back probably to our youth and our parents youth before us. But. Things have come a long way.

There's ways to make the vacation go smoother. We are here to share that today. Ciaran already snuck in a tip on our last podcast so I'm gonna let her go first because she is thinking Beach already

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Baby powder. My tip is I always drive around with a little container of baby powder in the back of my car because as much as you guys were saying you'd love the feeling of sand between your toes and I like it when I'm standing on the beach, I don't like it when I've got an inch of sand , in the, footwell of every single seat in my car. So I use the baby powder to get the sand off my feet before I get in the car. And I used it when my kids were little and they, they were itchy. And so having baby powder in your car or in your bag to get that sand off, it's magical.

It has to be the actual talcum powder. If you're a baby powder user, you probably aren't using the original baby powder because there's risks associated with it. But if you're using it on your feet to get sand off, it's great.

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[00:01:50] Ciaran: I have a whole list though of all of my beach things that I use and I look for and I'm always constantly scoping out other people at the beach. When I walk down to the beach, I'll be like, oh, what's that chair? That's an amazing beach chair And there's so many new ones. There's chairs that fold out and then you can hang a hammock on them I love the idea of having a hammock on the beach and I actually do bring a hammock to the beach frequently because one of The beaches we go to has great trees for Suspending a nylon hammock from, there's just nothing better than, swinging and listening to the waves and being,

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[00:02:31] Ciaran: honestly, I may not travel as much if I get one of the houses that I'm looking at to rent in this upcoming year. We want to own again after we sell our house, but the idea of just being able to see the water every day. And this 1 house that I'm looking at now I don't want to go anywhere.

If I live there, I'll be like, oh, I'm going to miss a sunset. I'm going to I'm going to miss something if I leave.

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[00:04:24] Nasreen: I always forget about the sunscreen that you have to reapply, right? I don't burn very, I've had a couple burns in my life. I'm darker and my, a couple of my kids are the same way and some of them are super white and burn immediately, but reapplying and the hat, my mother, when we went to Florida once got a burn on her part. And I didn't know that was a thing, but like that, and she's it hurts so much. I had never even considered that.

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[00:05:38] Desiree: Yeah a Neutrogena spray on my face. My dermatologist told me to use that on my face, the Neutrogena.

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[00:06:24] Desiree: Yeah

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[00:06:46] Maureen: Blue lizard a lot for the reef safe ones. And because my kids sail and they're fair, they go through a lot of sunscreen and they've tried a lot. So watch out for those reactions too.

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[00:07:01] Maureen: of course she

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[00:07:12] Desiree: You might be onto something there I was going to say people who pay for the lip injections now they know just put that one kind of sunscreen on their lips I have another really good tip where beach vacations were ruined at least for 24 hours spare sets of eyeglasses. My ex husband lost his eyeglasses in the ocean and my son lost his eyeglasses in the ocean on two very different trips years apart but If you don't have a spare set of eyeglasses and that kid doesn't wear contacts your trip is done period done I've learned now to travel with a photo at least of our eyeglass prescription so that if it happens we can run to the local eyeglass place typically walmart It even can do them in a day as long as you have the prescription with you if you don't and it's a saturday especially a holiday you are up the creek because they're not going to get a hold of your place and they won't create the glasses without a prescription So definitely

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[00:08:14] Desiree: I've been burned on that again three times actually twice at the beach once in the lake throw me my glasses routine when he's out on a tube and they went right onto the bottom of the

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[00:09:15] Maureen: Here's a weird one for you, but it's reality for a lot of beaches are jellyfish. And we keep a thing of vinegar in our boat and in our beach bag for lovely little jellyfish. Cause along the Gulf, they sure come out and that can definitely ruin your day. They're not huge and not deadly, but they are annoying and they hurt and especially for kids. So what do you guys bring? I've also heard pickle juice, but that's pretty much vinegar too. So

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[00:09:48] Maureen: pee. Yeah,

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[00:09:51] Maureen: I have not tried it, but I have heard it doesn't work either. So what is the meat tenderizer?

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[00:10:18] Nasreen: It used to be a thing for bee stings that they used to say, the meat tenderizer. I've heard that one before. My husband actually is a medic firefighter. He wrote an article on beach first aid kits. And he has, the vinegar, saline solution in general for like eyewash, because you get stuff like when the kids get sand or something in their eyes, having some type of eyewash is always good. I know we always have tweezers on us, splinters from boardwalks and pieces of shell, tweezers are a big one. And then, anything anti itch, aloe vera, sunblock, all the standards and eardrops. If your kiddo has a tendency to get water in their ears and have it stay and you can also use vinegar for this too. I got a bug stuck in my ear at a pool when we were little and I could feel it flat, like it was still like flying in my ear, right?

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[00:11:06] Nasreen: so the motel sent us across the street to the restaurant and they gave us vinegar and you put it in and it floated, like it comes right up, but it would dry out the ear too, I don't know, but definitely eardrops and drying out the ear, putting in ear plugs if they need to, so that you don't end up with an ear infection or something funky on the trip. Especially if there's any issues with like lakes can have the thing that you can get the ear infection from like the fecal matter of the geese.

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[00:12:11] Nasreen: And definitely checking up on any rule changes. Even if you've gone to it every single year I find the rules change a lot around beach towns. Like we would go down the Cape to Pocasset and rules change from year to year based on where residents versus non residents could park or if there were days or times that were residents only or glass, is glass allowed on the beach? Is it not allowed on the beach? What if they said you can't bring in or out this year? It's always a good idea to just take a quick look and make sure nothing has changed so you're not surprised.

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[00:12:54] Desiree: Garbage bags- I get so annoyed by people who leave their trash on the beach who are you Why why are you so entitled to think you shouldn't leave it beautiful for everybody else bring a simple little garbage bag and make sure everything that you haul in gets hauled right back

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[00:13:57] Maureen: It just needs to have it ready to go, too. half the reason we don't go to the beach is because it takes us an hour to gather all our stuff to go. It's like the first time of the season takes us a bit. Then you've got everything nicely packed up, so you've got whatever you need.

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[00:14:58] Maureen: We keep that beach bag packed all summer long.

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[00:15:14] Maureen: Oh yeah.

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[00:15:21] Maureen: want the one that has the spout out the side of the

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[00:15:43] Maureen: I give everybody a heart attack because I take my iPhone in the ocean, in the water all the time. Yeah, the thing you'd be concerned about is dropping it and losing it. But people freak out that getting your phone wet. It's totally fine.

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[00:16:09] Maureen: that? your speaker goes funny. So you just down a speaker cleaning app and you put it face down and it plays a sound and it blows everything out of the speakers so that it's fine. Now you will have to let it dry out because when you go to plug it in, it will say like liquid detected,

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[00:16:28] Maureen: can wirelessly charge it anyway. So it's not a big concern, but you get amazing photos and videos. Like I've done snorkeling so many times now with my iPhone. And other than, yeah, have some way of hanging on to it. Other than me, usually I just stick it in my bikini and it's really probably not the best solution Yeah.

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[00:17:32] Ciaran: That is a great tip. I have a little plastic case that, has a little combination on it. You can put your stuff in it. So what, like somebody's just going to grab the case, but if I bury it, that's very smart.

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[00:18:05] Desiree: Same we would

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[00:18:09] Maureen: have whatever the hell towels are in the cupboard and let's

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[00:18:23] Maureen: that's fine. I thought you meant you have yeah, the towel

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[00:18:29] Maureen: With you on that.

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[00:18:46] Maureen: I have a cupboard full of other children's names on the towels because between beach and pool parties, towels get left everywhere. So whoever Colette is and Emily, I have your towels.

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[00:19:09] Maureen: went to my friend's pool and I'm like, oh, there's my towels

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[00:19:30] Desiree: I get it though When you have a towel you love Yeah that happened to me with my ex in laws I had a Ralph Lauren like really fluffy I got it at TJ Maxx it was a deal but it's still it got adopted And I saw that through the years too And I will tell you there was a little resentment every time I saw it And I said that's mine Nope that's not it's ours Yeah Yeah It's not the reason for the divorce

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[00:20:09] Maureen: I do try, yeah, I do try and get a set each summer so we don't look too ragtag

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[00:20:15] Maureen: We have cause it's like we have the pool and beach all year round. So it's a little bit different than just for summer. Just summer is like constant pool parties, constant beach days.My kids live at the beach. I want them to take the ratty ones. If I'm going to a pool party, I want to show up with pretty towels. I'll buy six of something, the same pattern. So at least I know like those are all Ours, or I can say the red and white striped towels are our pool towels,

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[00:21:02] Desiree: Yeah when we went to Hawaii there were six of us and I bought the striped towels on Amazon that there were the quick dry They're not the real fluffy They're like a thin I don't know what Material it is but and they came in their own net bag but they were six striped towels of different colors So every kid was assigned a color You are red you are yellow green whatever I'm blue and that way everybody knew you had to carry your own towel you had your net bag if it's all wet and gross that's on you You didn't dry it. You just hit a point where you're like it's at and having the color system was super helpful and the quick dry and assigning you're carrying your own towel Cause

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[00:21:43] Nasreen: very tied to it.

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[00:21:46] Nasreen: on the other end of towels, and after you've dried all off and everything, we bring a hairbrush, because the girls their hair will completely knot up, and it'll be a pain in the butt to deal with later on. When they were little, that was always something we had with us,

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[00:22:05] Maureen: Mine just got blonde surfer Beach hair going and that I don't

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[00:22:11] Desiree: I have

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[00:22:16] Desiree: Yeah I have to comb mine the second I get out of the water It has to or else it will be all knotted up and gross

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[00:22:34] Nasreen: Oh, mine isn't either. No. That's why I put leave in conditioner in my hair to begin with. Cause I don't brush, I don't use a brush or comb on a regular basis anyways. I can't, it only makes my hair bigger. It rebels. I have to use only my fingers to begin with. But there is one brush that I have found that is usually used for applying like cream and leave in conditioners and stuff. You'll see it in viral TikTok videos. . It comes small and flat and then it goes out like a rake and it has pieces that you put in to hold it open and it's wide but you can take them out and it'll flex. It will not make my hair bigger and I can actually get it through my hair especially if I have leave in conditioner in it but leave in conditioner spray and a brush for the girls like otherwise the knots later on some of them are really hard to deal with. It doesn't. It only gets worse.

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[00:23:25] Nasreen: Beach drama. So the one thing we didn't hit on, we'll hit on quickly is the food because the beach and the food, right? We're sandwiches and fruit and we assume everyone's going to be way hungrier. So when we're going for the day, we pack a whole bunch of sandwiches, a whole bunch of fruit.It goes in a cooler bag. We bring it. And that's our MO, but I know some people grill at the beach.

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[00:24:11] Ciaran: Frozen grapes are great for going to the beach. And, lots of water, but we always hit the drive thru and we timed getting to the beach because inevitably we would get there and everyone would be starving, so we just started going, we don't go to the drive thru very often. I should say we like almost never, ever go to drive thrus, but we started going to like Taco Bell or Del Taco or whatever place my kids was like a big treat. And just getting a big ol bag of tacos or whatever, so that when we show up at the beach we have hot food, and eat it right away, and everybody's not starving, and then we can chill.

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[00:24:50] Ciaran: People don't think about drive thru for the beach, but it actually works out really well because you're not, packing sandwiches is great, but then you've got like a big bag and it's like they get soggy and anyway, it's a treat for us.

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[00:25:08] Ciaran: Okay.

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[00:25:28] Nasreen: the snackle box thing, the charcuterie, it's good if you're going with adults, very ill advised if there are children involved, because everything is next to each other, so it's gonna get mixed together, and if one thing gets sandy, it's all sandy. So if you're sharing snacks with kids, I strongly recommend packing everything in like portion sizes. And that way no one else has to deal with anyone else's crunchy snacks with the sand. Those wet sandy hands a bag of chips like

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[00:26:05] Maureen: child

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Thanks so much for joining us for another episode of time to talk travel. We will be back again next week with a different topic until then happy travels.

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