It's morning and of course there’s only two people actually up and moving this early – me and the dog! After what felt like an eternity driving yesterday, it was nice to finally hit the beach. The Northern beaches that is. Ocean City reminds me of my grandmother, stuck a little back in time, showing a little worse for the wear but something you still love to come back to. It’s so much more crowded than the beaches of North Carolina we visit, and so much colder! Sure, the condo smells a little like feet, and I feel the urge to immediately go out to get pillows and Febreez, it's still a place I love.
The dog gave me that, “You’ve got to be kidding me” look when I was up at the crack of the dog and hauling her down to the “dog walk.” This is the only grassy area of the condominiums where a dog can relieve themselves and not get an electric shock from the building’s landscaper – just kidding. The dog walk is a fenced in square of brown grass with a very smelly trash can to the side of it. She is mad that I woke her then the look of joy at the Encyclopedia Britannica of dog smells in the area as she reads her doggy morning paper. I take her to the beach and she’s jumping because of the sand, then hiding between my feet at the roaring sound of the ocean. What a new and exciting experience for the puppy.
Me? I’m thinking, I signed up to swim in the ocean on Sunday so I decide to touch my toe to the water. Holy SHIT! This is freezing, haven’t we had a heat wave? The dog is next to me and touches the water then walks back to roll in the sand with a “you’re nuts, there’s no way I’m swimming in that.” She takes one lick and spits it out.
First day of summer vacation and it’s about being a kid again, walking around the complex remembering when I spent summers here, laughing about that weekly “falling in love” at the beach, only to say our “goodbyes” when the tourists had to leave on the Saturday morning. It’s about ocean sunrises from the back porch and bay sunsets from the front porch. It’s about my boys spending 5 dollars on the “claw” to try and win me the Ipod in there and coming back with just a (5 dollar) piece of candy. It’s about the first words out of their mouth not, “Wow look at the ocean” or “Thanks Mom for driving us here” but “When can we go to Candy Kitchen.” Ocean City, with Thrasher’s French Fries, Candy Kitchen, Dolle’s Popcorn and crabs by the bushel. Right now I’m not going to think about it being me SIGNING UP to freeze my ass off this weekend in a fitness challenge while my boys watch and laugh.
They’re sleeping, dreaming about spending a mortgage payment on the Claw while I plot and plan the day. Think I can keep them out of Candy Kitchen until past lunchtime?
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