1. I made it there. In the dark. Using the bass ackwards route that my dad taught me when I first learned to drive. This is no small feat considering I have made the drive only once a year for the past 20 years. I know how to get there, but there is no way I could tell anyone else how to get there the way I go. I couldn’t have even told Hubby where to turn, at times, until we were right on the turn. I just know. Thus, I drove the whole way up, and until we got over the Delaware Memorial Bridge and onto I-95 South on the way back.
2. When J-Mav gets even slightly comfortable, he has no fear. We knew this; however, he continues to reiterate this fact. In the lake at the campground, he would go right out over his head. If he got tired of swimming, he’d just bounce off the bottom and come up for air until he got back to where he could touch the bottom. Yes it made us nervous. Yes we started staying closer to him. No it didn’t change anything. When we went out for a boat ride with my aunt, he was scared. He and Keeper Boy both sat in the front of the boat and clung to the side rail with white knuckles. About 45 minutes in, JMav started walking around the boat and grilling my aunt on all the dials and buttons on the dash. Keeper Boy stayed glued to that rail. When she sped up for about 30 seconds of the two-hour ride, J-Mav whooped. Keeper Boy stayed glues to that rail. By the time we were headed back to my aunt’s house, he was hanging over the front of the boat trying to see the lights. Oy!
3. The weather is weird. My grandfather always insisted that it could rain on the “mainland” and not in Avalon (which is a barrier island). I don’t know if that’s true, but we went to Sea Isle City for dinner one night (Lobster Loft = FABULOUS seafood restaurant if you’re ever in the area) and the heavens opened up just as we pulled up in front of the restaurant at the valet stand. We made a run for it and squished our way to our seats in our soggy flip flops. By the time drinks and bread came to the table, the monsoon had passed and the sun was coming back out. We actually walked on the beach after dinner. The day before that, we went to the beach (the ocean beach, not the lake beach) and when we got to the head of the walkway to enter the beach, we couldn’t even see the lifeguard stand (which wasn’t that far away because the tide was in) because of the fog. It was the weirdest thing I’ve ever seen at the beach. The guards weren’t letting anyone in past about their waists because that’s about as far as they could see. It did burn off as the hours went on, but it was just weird.
4. K-Dog needs some Xanax. She is a very stressed dog. We are fairly certain that when we left the trailer she didn’t relax… at all… until we got back safely. Then she would lie down and zonk out hard because she was exhausted. Thank goodness we never left her for more than about three hours at a time!! If Hubby was sitting outside my parents’ trailer and the kids and I walked away, she flipped out and watched until we came back. She’s always flipped out when she sees us packing the car up. I don’t know if she thinks she’s going to get left, or what. At least giving her a Dramamine pill before we left to go up and come back seems to have kept her from getting carsick. Thank goodness for small favors.
5. S’mores (or S’mos, as J-Mav calls them) rock. ‘Nuff said.
6. I’ll never understand why people build huge houses. The size of a lot of the houses is ridiculous—especially since many of those people who build those huge houses do not live down there full time and don’t rent out their houses when they’re not there. Why on earth do you need a small hotel? My aunt’s house is a “normal” sized house… three bedrooms, bathroom, kitchen, dining room, living room upstairs; rec room, bathroom, laundry room downstairs. I would go as far as to say even that is bigger than necessary for someone who just goes to the shore a few times a year. However, my grandparents built that house in the 70s and they LIVED there for half of the year. So that’s a different story. I would love to own one of the smaller “original” houses, and it’d be just fine. If only I had a few million spare dollars floating around…
7. All mini-golf is not the same. We played mini-golf with the kids on one of the rooftop courses in Stone Harbor. It was remodeled since the last time we played there. Strangely, the holes had no turf. Instead, the surface was cement board or something similar. This meant the balls rolled really well. The course was fun, and there were a lot of unique holes. Everyone got at least one hole-in-one, and J-Mav got a hole in one on a hole that Hubby and I couldn’t even complete (anything above a 5 was scored as a 5). The hole had you shoot the ball up a ramp and (assuming you hit it at the correct velocity) into a fishing net. We all had a great time. Thank goodness for the breeze that morning because the sun would’ve been brutal otherwise.
8. I CAN go to the shore and not purchase a piece of clothing that says “Avalon.” It doesn’t happen too often, but I did not come home with any new Avalon clothing this year for myself or the kids. Nothing floated my boat.
9. The campground is ripe for people watching. I mean, it could be an Olympic sport there! Campgrounds always attract a wide range of people. But Sea Pines seemed ripe with those on the lower end of the scale while we were there. My favorite was the couple who thought it was adorable that their child (no older than J-Mav) was dropping the F-bomb in conversation every other sentence. The only “discipline" I heard was from the mom when she removed her tongue from her husband/boyfriend/baby daddy’s throat long enough to say, “Colin, stop cursing.” Not so effective when said while giggling.
10. I could move to the beach in a heartbeat. Wouldn’t necessarily need to be Avalon, but that’d be my first choice since I’ve been going there for all of my 39 years. If I had a few million extra dollars and Hubby actually liked the beach (oh, and I could find gainful employment), I’d be there. Alas, I don’t think any of that is going to happen anytime in the very near future, so I’ll have to be content to visit once a summer.
BONUS item: Sea gulls beaks are hard and tend to hurt when they bite your finger while trying to steal your last bite of sandwich when you're watching the kids play on the beach instead of paying attention to the thieves flying around you. Evil birds.
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