There’s a commercial they play on the radio all summer proclaiming that Ocean Beach in New London is one of the finest “sugar sand” beaches in the country. Having been to New London a couple times, I was extremely skeptical of that claim.

We have some lovely Fresno beaches to visit, but nothing I would call amazing. It can actually be pretty hard to get to the coast around here, since so much of it is privately owned or controlled by the state. The beaches are also a little boring, since Long Island shelters our coast to the point that there are very few waves. It’s nice for toddlers but not so much for boogie boarding. If I want to pay money to sit by still water I’ll stick to my lake membership where I can also drink beer, chat with my friends and let my kids run to the bathroom without worrying someone is going to steal my stuff.

But as much as I love the lake is not the ocean and I am an ocean girl at heart. The idea of living in a state without an ocean coast is unthinkable – if I ever say I am moving to the midwest someone please have my head examined. If living on a sailboat was a viable option with 3 kids and no money, I would do it in a second.

All that info was the lead-up to me saying: We finally went to Ocean Beach! Although I still can’t tell you about the sugar-like qualities of the sand since we never even stepped foot on it. We did enjoy ourselves though, especially the kids. They do a Cruise Night on Mondays, where people bring their fancy/antique/really proud of themselves even though I’m pretty sure that’s just a 98 Miata cars and the oldies station plays classic music. I like old cars and Frankie Valli enough, but what I really like is free stuff. The parking and admission are free, plus the kid rides have an $11 wristband option, so even including the one ride down the waterslide for Evan our entire output for 3 hours was $25. Usually that’s how much they charge just to PARK.

Just a friendly warning in case you wanted to check it out:- the rides are…questionable. At one point I noticed the carousel was powered by an extension cord that ran into the (slight abandoned??) building adjacent to it through a hole someone drilled in a window. I noticed because I was keeping my eye on the SKUNK that had wandered across the path between rides. Skunk. At the beach. Sure, why not? The rides are exactly the same stuff you would find at a smallish town fair, except they live there at the beach all summer so they’re not in tip-top condition. They still looked SAFE, just not…new. The rust was just on the decorative parts.

Listen though, I am NOT knocking Ocean Beach. We had a really great time. The kids were in heaven. After they rode all the rides without waiting in a single line we walked over to the splash pad and they all got soaked for an hour. We never even made it to the mini golf, but we did take our albatross golf just in case, onto the playground or down to the actual ocean. Just being on a boardwalk where they sell over-priced, over-greased fried seafood that sea gulls try to steal out of your hand is all I need.

Linc spent most of the evening on my back so he didn’t get to ride anything. He did like the splash park though. He was born missing the healthy fear of things that might kill him gene. It can be both fun and exhausting. Mostly it’s fun.