Well, vacation's over.

 

I spent one more weekend in Chadwick down the New Jersey shore... but tomorrow, it's back to work...

So, here are my pictures from my summer vacation...

Surfing

 

Stevie took a surf lesson, and I went along to get some snap shots. He did really well... he was up on the board immediately.

I'm going to miss Steve! I saw a lot of him over the last few weeks and I got to know him a little better. He's a great kid.

Beach Boy

 

Nick loves being at the beach house. He's staying another week, even though we had to come home to go back to work.

And Frankie had to come home, to see his friends. He's going away to college soon. He had a party to get to, and people to see, and things to do. And a root canal this week.

I convinced most of the family to color!!!

 

I had fun. I think everyone else did too.

We hung the pictures on the refridgerator.

The clouds rolled in...

 

... and we all rolled over to the beach to try to get some good photos of lightning...

Lightning storm from Chadwick

Jelly Fish

 

There are always jellyfish in the waters of the lagoon... at least, every time we are there. They don't look as obvious as this one; I played with this photo to make the thing really show up. But there are plenty of them under the bridge and around the bulkhead. And they sting.

I've heard that vinegar helps the sting feel better, and the kids tried it. They said it helped some. Of course we didn't have plain white vinegar, we had apple cider vinegar. But I guess vinegar is vinegar, right?

If your friends said they were going to jump off a bridge, would you?

 

If you jumped off a bridge, would your friends jump too?

If your friends all let their kids jump off a bridge, would you let your kids jump off a bridge?

What if it was really fun?

For Jozien

 

The swans at Chadwick Beach are one of my favorite things :)

Sweet dreams........

 

Family Vacation, Part 1

To paraphrase Frost:
Two roads diverged... and I...
I took the one less traveled by...
and that has made all the difference.


(this wasn't that road.)

 

So. I guess that my earlier "epic adventure" was certainly the road less taken. This one is the road taken by everyone.

On my "epic adventure" you would never have known we were in New Jersey. We often could (barely) hear anything that resembled an engine. We could hear birds and tree frogs.

But this is Thor's summer vacation, and as his family has been getting this beach house down the Jersey Shore, and this is the week, I went down the shore too.

I left on Saturday. We all left on Saturday. All in separate cars. I'm sure every family down the shore had several cars, hence the traffic. But I had to come back earlier than anyone else, so I needed a car to return in.

I drove and drove, slowly... and it took 2 1/2 hours to get there. I finally arrived around 6 PM. And once there, I went to the A&P to do some food shopping. I hadn't felt like shopping before I left. And when I got back from the A&P, I found out that my poor Nicholas had lost one of the lenses in his glasses. And he really does need his glasses in order to see. I know how miserable that can be. He would have had a horrible time, without his glasses.

So I got back in the car and drove home. Luckily, it was late enough by this time that there wasn't much traffic. I was able to get there AND back in about 2 1/2 hours. And also lucky for Nick, we'd gotten him two sets of glasses last time, so he had a spare set for me to get for him.

I really didn't mind the drive -- even in the traffic. My car is very comfortable, and I had my air conditioning on, and my radio blasting... it was quite lovely. I sang all the way there, and back, and there again.

I don't mind the drive. The thought of THAT MANY PEOPLE bothers me a little. On the other hand, all those people have to go SOMEWHERE on vacation.

And as long as they like to go to the beach, they're keeping the mountains nice and quiet and peaceful for me.



And today I drove home, so I can work. And I've got the house to myself, so I'm still on vacation.

Here's proof I really made it!

 
I'm not a big beach person... well, I love the beach. But I don't love it in the middle of the summer in the middle of the day in the middle of the weekend in the middle of a crowd. But I had to get there... at least for a little while... because after all, I'd driven that whole way, hours and hours, right??? So there I am. Proof I was there.
I bought a daily beach pass for $6.00, and lasted about 1 hour, for about 1 day.

But I really had a good time, in spite of my lack of beach time. The house we rent has a lovely back deck on the lagoon, with a canopy and some shade, and I sat there, where I could escape inside to the air conditioning every once in a while. I visited with a lot of friends and family, and we had a lot of laughs. It was worth the drive.

And now, I'm home again. I'd tell you I came home just so I could post this blog, but of course that wouldn't be true. I have work... but even so, being home with no kids (they are still at the beach house) is just like a vacation anyway! My music is on and blasting, I've been playing on the computer for an hour and a half, and I don't have to do a thing about dinner. Unless I want to.

Down the Shore

 

It's a little cramped on a nice weekend.