Leisure

The reason the beach vacation is so perfect, is that nothing is planned. Everybody sleeps in until 9am (even my kids), eat breakfast around 10am, lunch at 3pm, and dinner around 8pm. It does throw off my sense of time a bit, but that's okay. Time does not matter. If I want to daze off for a while, I don't have to feel guilty about it. If I want to take a 4 hour nap, no one cares. If I want to go for an afternoon long hike to the end of the point alone, everyone supports that.

I did just that the other day. I walked the 3 miles to the end of Alligator point by myself. I didn't bring any water, or put on sunscreen. I didn't have any idea how long it took me. I just walked. The water was very calming, and it was fun to see the birds fly down the beach a ways each time I got too close for their comfort. It was low tide, so I walked into the ocean to a sand bar. At one point, I found a great spot for sand dollars. There were hundreds there. All beautiful. By the time I headed back, the tide was coming back in, and the wind was blowing cold.

Today I actually did something productive; I gave everybody in my family haircuts. Those were sorely needed. Then I spent a few hours defeating Will and Sam in Monopoly. I used to play monopoly a lot with my brother Carlo. I can't really remember whether much strategy was going on, but the trading usually didn't start until all the streets were sold. After my first roll, Sam was already trying to buy my properties. Kind of funny. Sam and I were very close, but in the end, my orange and green monopolies prevailed.

Tonight Joe took me out for a date. It was nice to spend some time with him, especially since he's been working 8 hours a day. He works from home anyways, so he set up a little office in the master bathroom, and works. I think he's crazy. But I guess he's being a good employee and doing his job. We went to a local seafood restaurant where everything was fried. Then we spent about an hour in Walgreens. I had bought some hair coloring stuff the other day, which totally didn't work, so I wanted to return it. I wanted to buy some more, and just couldn't decide which on to get. Finally, after an hour, the lady talked me out of buying anything, and into waiting at least a week before doing anything else to my hair. I'm glad she did.

I have to admit that I've been a little nervous about our house and stuff for the past few days. Some people looked at the house on Wednesday, and might be coming back tomorrow for a second look. That's great news, however, there's nothing we can do to prepare any more. I can't muck out the chicken coop, or install the new light fixtures. I can't rake the leafs out of the pool, or mow the lawn. I guess those are just minor details, but they could make a big difference.

The tide was very low tonight, so we headed for the big sand bank, which is located closer to the house we stayed in last year. I have never seen such a large sand bank! It was pitch black, but we used flashlights to walk out onto it. We walked out over half a mile. Seriously! Towards the end, I started getting nervous. We only had a few small flashlights (and the million candlelight flashlight had already died), plus we had no idea when the tide was supposed to come back in. We had 5 semi-adults and 5 little kids. Could have been bad. Of course that's what made it so much more exciting; The fear.

Tonight as we were sitting around the bonfire on the beach, I just wanted to freeze time. Can't i just stay here and now forever? We love being surrounded by our friends and loved ones. We love the leisure. We love the adventure of embarking on treasure finding missions. I love seeing my happy children playing on the beach. I just love everything about this place.