After the first day of our junior journey in April where we attended Level 99 (a series of escape rooms requiring both physical strength, mental strength, and teamwork) it was time for the second part. For this day, we went to Nantasket Beach in Hull on May 22nd. 

After attending our first period at school, we all made our way to the beach. While some students went in the Montrose van alongside our chaperones, who are also our grade-level mentors: Mrs. Pajak and Mrs. Silveyra, others drove themselves or carpooled with friends. Personally, I drove myself in my black Ford Escape (yes, my car, in fact, does have a name – Hunter) which was a (very early) seventeenth birthday gift and probably my favorite gift ever because I’ve gotten the opportunity to have much more independence. The drive to Nantasket was very scenic. That is, once we got off of the highway. While the roads were VERY narrow, we did pass a few harbors with lots of boats and beautiful water. 

Soon, we made it to Nantasket Beach. Due to arriving MUCH earlier than everyone else, I was sitting in my car for almost thirty minutes, jamming out to my country music playlist, not realizing I was on the complete opposite side of the beach. Thankfully, I arrived at the right part of the beach less than a minute or two after everyone else. The second we arrived, we all went down the stairs, across the rocks, and onto the sand where we set up our “camp” for the day. Other than the rocks that lined the back of the beach, there weren’t any rocks in the sand, making it very easy to walk around without shoes. The water was very clear and due to the high winds, there were amazing waves. The crisp 55-degree temperature, along with the chilling winds, made for a very cold day, meaning that everyone spent the time in hoodies and sweatpants. Despite that, we all had a blast. 

While some kids walked uptown, many stayed on the beach, walking up and down the many miles that it spanned, along with playing spike ball and just sitting and hanging out with their friends. For lunch, some of us packed our own, while others went uptown to grab something to eat. Personally, I got my lunch at Lucky Lemons, a takeout restaurant right on Nantasket Beach and brought the food back down to the beach to eat with my friends. 

At this point, the tide began to come in, and it began to come in FAST. We had to move all of our things up to where the rocks lined the top of the beach, and because around a third of our classmates were uptown having lunch, we also moved their things to the rocks. Overall, the slightly chaotic scene took a lot of teamwork from all of us as we moved everything away from the rapidly-approaching ocean water. Whether something was ours or not, we grabbed whatever we saw and pulled it away from the water. Due to the very low elevation of Nantasket Beach and practically nonexistent incline from the water to the sand, the tide comes in much faster than on a lot of other beaches.

Right after lunch and moving all of our things to the rocks, we got to celebrate my birthday as a class. At Montrose, it’s tradition for each student to pull a classmate’s name out of a hat and bring treats for the grade on their birthday. My birthday had been the day before, so we got to celebrate in festive fashion at the beach (thanks again Scarlett Adler ‘24 for the cupcakes!!!) After celebrating, Meredith Ehrenzeller ‘24 and I had a crazy idea… we were going to go in the ocean. The water was definitely cold, but I’d say that the wind was much colder. 

Almost immediately after Meredith and I got out of the water, we had to get everything off of the beach entirely, as the tide continued to rise. Once again, we grabbed everything in sight, whether it was ours or not, and ran it up the stairs and onto the benches that were overlooking the beach. Trust me, there was a LOT of stuff, so it took a lot of teamwork, and a lot of flights of stairs climbed, but eventually, we got everything off of the beach, and nothing got wet. Due to the fact that we could no longer go onto the beach, we ended up cutting the beach trip short by just over an hour, but despite that, we still had an amazing day off from classes, full of class bonding and overall fun!

By Kristina Klauzinski ‘24, Sports Editor

24kklauzinski@montroseschool.org