Into the sunset

The footsteps of another great beach vacation are washed away now, but we had a great time and the adventures will live on in our memories.  While I tell the stories of our last few vacation days, I’ll jazz them up a bit with some “six word memoirs. Here’s one:  There is nothing like the beach.

When I last posted, we were planning a fun Thursday night at the busy end of the boardwalk.  We played miniature golf in the newest course on the boardwalk. The course was a little lame; the obstacles were mostly oddly shaped fairways and drop holes (where you land on the green depends on which drop hole you hit).  The ambiance, though, was quite imaginative.  There were black-lit dragons and knights and trees painted on the walls in neon colors.  Emily thought it was “creepy” and PJ didn’t like the way the trees were painted with veins, but I thought there were some great murals.  Patrick won, of course, but I actually got a hole in one (small consolation for the MANY times my ball lipped the cup without dropping!).  Hole in one! Golf is fun!

We had dinner at Clancy’s, one of the few sit-down places on the boardwalk.  While we were walking up to the amusement pier, we stopped to see the sea creatures being discussed by someone from a nature center.  Her pool contained a starfish, a couple of sea urchins, a horseshoe crab, a sand crab, a blue crab, and some sort of creature that lives in a conch shell (that wasn’t a conch).  We learned all about how they eat and live, although PJ knew a lot of fun facts from all the science books he reads.  For example, do you know how a starfish eats a clam?  It latches on until the clam gets tired of “clamming up” and opens its shell just a little.  When that happens, the starfish pushes its stomach out of its body and slides it into the clam shell where it consumes the clam. Then it pulls its stomach back in. Ew.  But really cool.  Sea creatures trust us to share.

Then it was off to ride the rides.  PJ and Emily variously flew on the airplanes, climbed up the jungle gym, rode the flying elephants, steered the jeeps around in a circle,  crashed the bumper cars, floated around on the bumper boats, raced in the Nascar cars, rode the boats around a small lake, and drove the miniature bumper cars.  On the second lap on the Nascar ride at the end of the night, PJ tried the “hands up” move so common on roller coasters (the Nascars are in an oval, and they whip around very quickly on the two ends).  Emily imitated her big brother and almost fell out of her chair.  You had to be there; it was quite funny!  A child’s laugh makes hearts soar.

In all, we walked the boards, played golf, and rode rides from 4 pm to almost 11 pm, with an hour or so for a dinner break.  Whew!  Emily fell asleep in her stroller on the way back, but the rest of us had pretty tired (and blistered!) feet at the end of the night!  Two feet to walk too far.

Friday was our last day, really, because we have to be out of the house by 10 am on Saturday. I was out to the beach early for a relatively short walk, and then joined the whole family for a morning lounging by the ocean.  PJ and Em found some sand crabs and enjoyed the fell of them trying to dig down into their hands.  Surf, seagulls, splashing, squealing = Summer symphony.  Lunch was a feast of salad and brochette and pizza. 

I then took a drive up to Ventnor City to pick up my friends Daniel and Ethan.  (On the drive, I admired the especially gorgeous beach properties in Longport and Margate!)  Their family has a beach house in Ventnor, but it is under construction due to an unfortunate broken pipe incident this winter.  (Looking great – new kitchen, restored floors, etc., but still clearly under construction.)  We came back and hung out on the beach – Ethan loves to jump in the waves, and Daniel and I had a chance to catch up on a short walk.  Afterwards, we split up – Pat, Lisa, PJ, and Em heading out for dinner and arcade games, and Daniel, Ethan, and I doing the same but a little more casual. We ate at Mack and Mango’s (pizza) and had some fun in one of the arcades.  (That’s Ethan’s thing, really; Daniel and I mostly watched.)  Instead of treading the boards back home, we took a sunset walk on the beach.  Pink sunset. Follow the waves home.  It was fun, and for them a lot more fun than hanging out in a house still being repaired.  After I took Daniel and Ethan home, it was time to clean up and pack up. 

Saturday morning was a whirlwind of packing.  It’s so hard to say goodbye.  There was one last bit of excitement when a bird flew into the house through the open garage.  Pat was able to catch it and set it free off the front porch, but it had banged pretty hard against the windows a couple of times, and we weren’t sure it was going to be all right.  We hope so!  Then we sadly waved goodbye to the beach house and headed out for lunch and the drive home.

Great times.  This is the life…

Into the sunset