Sunshine Finally: Enjoying Memorial Day At The Beach

While Memorial Day weekend is a time to honor our service men and women who have given so much for the freedoms we all enjoy, it's become a time for families and friends to gather for barbeques and here in the Coastal Empire and Low Country, to head to the beach.

Mother Nature certainly rained on most of our plans for Saturday and Sunday, but as News 3's Randi Hempel shows us, many were able to squeeze in some beach time on the last day of the long weekend.

The Carter family is glad to be outside enjoying the sun, sand and surf --
"I like doing stuff in the water and like finding seashells,” explains 10 year old Emily Hollombe.

And of course, Emily loves playing in the water with mom, dad, big sister, Caroline and little brother, Bryce.

"It feels good, like cause we really haven't gone to the beach a lot since we've been here and this is like the 2nd time that we've been,” Emily explains (since they moved to Pooler from Arizona)

"Two weeks in the rain, to finally come out here and spend the time in the sun with the family, it's real nice,” adds Anthony Carter, who’s enjoying the day with his family.

The thousands of beach goers aren't the only ones enjoying the much needed break from the rain. The Tybee Island Ocean Rescue lifeguards are enjoying the sunshine today after more than a week of rain.

"Well, it's been good the last couple days it's been raining and slow and sending people home. We've got a lot of people out here today keeping us busy,” explains Tybee Island Lifeguard, Matt Janufka.

Ocean Rescue officials estimate the crowds at 12-14,000 beach goers.

"A bunch of people have been cooped up in their houses. I'm sure everybody's wanting to enjoy Memorial Day. It's actually not quite as busy as I thought it would be. We started off with a bang this morning with a bunch of rescues back to back,” explains Lt. Hunter Robinson with Tybee Island Ocean Rescue.

At the end of the day, they had 7 rescues, 6 assists (which means someone’s in danger of going under) and 14 medical calls. The calls kept lifeguards almost as busy as the kids.

"They'll wear themselves out so they're not cranky so they go to sleep early, on time,” adds dad, Anthony.

So that mom and dad, a former soldier, can enjoy the rest of this Memorial Day.

Ocean Rescue lifeguards were expecting about 25,000 people to visit the beach this weekend. They say they probably saw 12-14,000 on Memorial Day, but far less on Saturday and Sunday because of the weather.

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