Home Again, Home Again

Well, I'm back home again, fresh from my 2ND vacation to Stone Harbor this year. We traveled through the night Friday night (it used to be so the kids could sleep all night) and arrive Saturday morning about 8:30 am. Of course, check in isn't until 1:00pm, so we have time to kill. We cross the bridge into Stone Harbor and can smell the ocean air. We drive up and down the streets and drive past the place we're going to stay. Then we drive to the ocean block, get out, and walk to the pier so we can gaze at the ocean. We fill our lungs with fresh sea air, while our hearts chant "We're here, we're here." Mark walks to the surf and checks out the water temperature. This sets the tone for the trip. When he comes back up to the pier and says, "it's like bathwater," that's a good sign.

We noticed that there were very few lifeguard chairs on the beach, as well as very few people. As we walk back to the car, we noticed there were a bunch of lifeguard chairs stacked up by the SH beach house. We drive up and down the streets again, and notice that no cars are parked lining the streets. Trees are in bloom that we don't normally see in a late June/July or an August vacation. Even though it's almost 9:00am, there are almost zero walkers or joggers or bike riders on the street. Our tradition is to go to Uncle Bill's for pancakes, and we sit there talking about the changes, and what we think they mean. In addition, upon arriving we found that the paper said Hurricane Gustov was due to hit and bring storms that afternoon around 2:00pm. Then Mark mentions we should look around at the other people here and there's our answer. I glance around the pancake house and every table has a couple, with no children in sight. (I like to believe they're ALL older than me!) Occasionally, there's a young couple with a toddler and a baby, but no young families, with children in tow. Every table is the same. Couple after couple, probably retired, vacationing with no children. Since this is our first vacation in forever without family, it seems so odd. So this is our first taste of a retiree's life. It requires some adjustment in our thinking but after a few days, we still think we're the youngest ones in town.

More on vacation tomorrow.
Have a good day.

mjs 9.15.08 2:00pm

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Vacation

Vacation - not a staycation, but an actual beach vacation, where the ocean roars and calms at the same time. This year is unique, as this is our second vacation to our favorite place, Stone Harbor, New Jersey. Our first was in June, with the extended family, as is our tradition. This vacation belongs to us, my husband Mark and myself. We celebrated our 30th anniversary this year and decided to come back to the shore in September to celebrate our anniversary with a special trip. We've had a couple weekend trips, but haven't really had a trip to ourselves since our honeymoon in 1978. Our excursions always included family, mostly because the trips were more economical.

How novel it will be to have the house we rent completely to ourselves. All our attention can be focused on one another. The beach belongs to us alone (I can ignore all those other people there). The town is there simply to entertain us and amuse us during this week of rejuvenation. The importance of rejuvenation cannot be underestimated. A need to refill the soul and believe that life is good keeps us going, sometimes for an entire year, until the next vacation. Our spirits drink in the calmness of the ocean and we are always awed by it's beauty. The scenes are familiar, yet welcome. Babies are playing in the sand, and toddling toward the water. Children are rushing to dance in the waves. Adults are hovering, holding their hands, introducing their children to the ocean. The same scene plays out again and again at the seashore.

I'm taking my new camera and experimenting on this trip. Hopefully I'll bring back something beautiful to share with you next week. Maybe a sunrise over the ocean or a sunset over the bay. Maybe a heron flying over the wetlands or the surfer race on the Nun's Beach. Whatever it is, I'm going to the sea again (isn't there a poem about that?) and I'm thrilled.

Have a good week.
mjs 9.5.08 11:28 pm

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Upheaval

Well, the world seems in a political upheaval today, at least to me. And then my life, sometimes so calm, got a jolt today. My mother passed away in June of this year. I met a woman today who was her PT at one of the assisted living care facilities she lived in. The weird part was, I met her while I was on my job, taking photos of a senior care home, and in a part of town my mother wasn't even close to, and it was as if my worlds had collided (isn't that from a Seinfeld show?) We acknowledged one another and shared words of sympathy, which I appreciated, but I felt so odd. That moment when your work world and your private world meet one another and you are thrown off balance by forgetting who knows who and what they know about you.

My quilt circle meets tonight and I already know that the tactile sensation of fabric is a comfort to me. I look forward to touching cloth and smoothing it between my fingers, the way a child "jouggies" a blanket between their fingers while sucking their thumb. "Jouggy" is my family's word for it - I've discovered that different families have a different word for that action. Maybe someone can share with me what that is in their family.

I'm getting ready to go the beach tomorrow, so I won't be writing from there. I'll be enjoying the sun and the sand and the ocean breezes. Maybe I can figure out what I want to do when I grow up.

mjs

9.4.08 4:21 pm

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