Balancing Act

Out on the pier, the air smelled of the ocean, which, oddly enough, is not always the case when you're on the coast.  I think it has something to do with tides and the seaweed.  When I was a kid and we drove three hours to the beach, I always wanted to be the first one to pick up that salty clear smell of the sea.  "I smell the ocean!  I smell it!" I would cry, but sometimes my mother got it first.  We ate fried clams and lobster rolls, and for awhile my dream was to be a waitress at the beach; they were college girls, blonde and tanned and perky.