We have friends who live right by the beach and they let us park at their house. They also sell bunnies and other pets. They had a hedge hog that they needed to sell. They gave it to us with all of its stuff for $20. Now Johnny who has wanted a hedgehog for years has one now.
That day at the beach was crazy. There was a red flag up the waves seemed calm. The kids went it and found the undertow pretty bad, so they were not swimming out much at all. I went in, the water was warm and nice. I swam a little ways out and noticed that instead of the waves pushing me toward the shore they were pulling me out to sea. I swam in and Rachel met me. I told her to be careful, that the waves were carrying us out to sea. But it was happening fast. In only a few minutes, Rachel and I were carried out. I told Rachel to start swimming in right away. I saw Rachel swimming hard and making no progress. She swam and swam. It was hard, but I got to her. She told me that she was scared and thought that she would drown. I told her that we were stuck but that it would be okay. I told her to lie on her back and float, and then I said a prayer. Rachel was still panicked, but I was able to get a little strength and with Rachel floating on her back, I gave her a hard push toward shore, swam hard against the break to her, pushed her again. I did this 2 more times, and then we could touch again. Joseph came up to us, and I told him to take Rachel in. I was completely exhausted, and just crawled to shore, then sat by the waves and gave the message to the kids to NOT SWIM OUT. Rachel and I stayed out of the water. Some of the kids went on a walk. While I was sitting by the sand, a kid, maybe 17 to 20, drove up in an Emerald Isle fire pick up truck and asked me if all of the people in the water were with me. I told him that they were. He told me that they were telling everyone to get out of the water because the undertow was too strong and they were having too many rescues. I told him our story of getting trapped, but pulling ourselves in. Then another fire dept, vehicle pulled up with a jet ski pulled behind. They had had so many rescues that instead of keeping the jet ski at the fire station, they were pulling it up and down the beach. We did as they asked and got everyone out of the water, went home, and said a prayer of thanks that we were all safe. He have swum plenty of red flag days, even out somewhat far, but have never had it this bad.
