Whitney Drake

I know, I posted about my triumphant trip to the beach in which I went into the water after being a little traumatized by almost drowning. What I hadn’t discovered yet was that I’d gotten a fairly bad sunburn on my back. I felt warm, sure, and sore. But it was a warm day and I’d been pulling kids about and carrying heavy buckets of water from the ocean. Who wouldn’t be sore?

Shortly after I blogged, TheBoy took over kidlet duty so that I could go take a shower, and as I pulled off my shirt I saw that my back was pink. And that parts of my arms and thighs were as well.

Despite the fact that I am olive-skinned, I’m actually quite fair for me. I spent much of my childhood out in the sun and was pretty tan. I never burned, and no matter how much sun block I put on, I just kept getting darker. But then I stopped going out in the sun. I was a cubicle rat, and had been told I couldn’t tan by my mother, otherwise my wedding dress would look silly. So I didn’t! Then I was pregnant and didn’t go out much… and well, soon enough it had been 5 years since I really spent much time outside. Normally I apply lots of sunblock, but on this trip I forgot to reapply. I was so caught up in the fun of building sand castles, that I forgot that I could burn. So I did.

Helpful tips: When out at the beach (or just outside for an extended time), remember that overcast days are the most likely days that you’ll burn. The UV rays come down through the clouds and bounce up from the earth towards the sky- then bounce back down from the clouds. So while you’d think that it’s worse on a sunny day, a cloudy day is much worse. Always reapply. I paid plenty of attention to my boys, who both spend plenty of time out in the sun, but completely forgot about myself.

Originally published at American Whitney. You can comment here or there.