See? Schmancy!I dragged my exhausted, kinda drunk arse across my filthy, disgusting, shame-of-a-kitchen-floor at about 4am. Brushed my teeth (having to change toothbrushes in the middle due to a toothbrush flinging accident), peeled off my insanely torn tights & passed the hell out, pausing ever-so-briefly to think of the thing I would be doing the next da--well, no. In the next 9 hours.
Yesterday afternoon we woke to a balmy 65. Friday night it was in the 30s. Hello, Rhode Island! I changed out of my pajamas into a bathing suit, a sweatshirt, yoga pants & my Birkenstocks. We stumbled outside, grasping our towels, camera & a couple clementines. Once in the car, I laughed, thinking of how hard it was to decide what to wear on a 65-degree first of January, particularly when you’ll be jumping into the ocean in a matter of minutes.
That’s right--we did the North Kingstown Polar Bear Plunge! Which means that I get to post pictures of myself in my bathing suit. Yay! :/
Unfortunately the time on the website was wrong, so when we arrived at the beach at 1:40 we were actually 10 minutes late, not 20 minutes early. People were wet, wrapped in towels or bathrobes, dressed in crazy outfits. And not a soul was in the water. Crap!! But we were there & we had told a few people that we were doing it, so sonavabitch, we were doing it.
The benefit to being late was that we could have someone take pictures for us. I should have showed him how to use the zoom, but the fact that he was kind enough to document the event for us was great enough. Thank you, stranger dude, for taking the following photos!
Stripped of our sweats & ready to make the dash.
My feet were so cold & I started to trip. I thought of catching myself but decided to let myself go down, as the tide was out & as we ran the water just was not getting deep enough. I couldn't do it anymore! Luckily stranger-dude got this shot of me going under!
That’s right--we did the North Kingstown Polar Bear Plunge! Which means that I get to post pictures of myself in my bathing suit. Yay! :/
Unfortunately the time on the website was wrong, so when we arrived at the beach at 1:40 we were actually 10 minutes late, not 20 minutes early. People were wet, wrapped in towels or bathrobes, dressed in crazy outfits. And not a soul was in the water. Crap!! But we were there & we had told a few people that we were doing it, so sonavabitch, we were doing it.
The benefit to being late was that we could have someone take pictures for us. I should have showed him how to use the zoom, but the fact that he was kind enough to document the event for us was great enough. Thank you, stranger dude, for taking the following photos!
Stripped of our sweats & ready to make the dash.
My feet were so cold & I started to trip. I thought of catching myself but decided to let myself go down, as the tide was out & as we ran the water just was not getting deep enough. I couldn't do it anymore! Luckily stranger-dude got this shot of me going under!
D kept going & finally went under as I was starting to make my quick retreat back to the shore. It should be noted that I wasn't wearing my contacts or glasses at this point so not only was I disoriented by the cold & laughter, I couldn't see a damn thing!
An awful picture of me immediately post-plunge.
A much better shot of D post-plunge.
I took all upcoming shots.
A couple groups of people went in after we did. This guy just made his girlfriend go under, which was pretty funny. "You didn't do it unless you go under!" I liked their hats.
D being a reluctant interviewee for the local newspaper.
Snow on the beach!
We did it!
It was a fun, crazy way to kick off the New Year with Derrick, & a great way to reaffirm my clam handling ways. But damn, were we spoiled with the temperature. I’m sure next year’s Polar Bear Plunge will punish us.
An awful picture of me immediately post-plunge.
A much better shot of D post-plunge.I took all upcoming shots.
A couple groups of people went in after we did. This guy just made his girlfriend go under, which was pretty funny. "You didn't do it unless you go under!" I liked their hats.
D being a reluctant interviewee for the local newspaper.
Snow on the beach!
We did it!As someone who often has trouble getting into the water on a hot summer day, I was dreading the water temperature. But it really wasn’t as bad as I thought it would be. Freezing & startling, yes. My feet were instantly numb, & my knees down were pretty numb for about 15 minutes afterwards, but all in all it wasn’t as bad as I thought it would be. The fact that the air was so warm really helped matters. And while the cold seawater did wonders for the headache that was starting to sprout it made me really tired, which is strange. D was AWAKE & I could have used a nap. And a coffee, which I got & drank the heck outta.
I can't believe y'all did that! Braver than I, that is for sure. Great pics!!
ReplyDeleteGreat job! Congrats on the plunge :)
ReplyDelete(I wonder if a female would do as well as D does at being a fun-wingman.)
Congrats on being so brave...both of you! Great clam handle thingy. :-)
ReplyDeleteThanks! We plan on doing it next year with as many people as we can get!
ReplyDeleteRyan, we should ask Laurel, I think.