The Swimsuit Issue

We just had a taste of what all the fuss is about out here. Most people out here take at least a week and head to the beach. We went for a weekend to Long Beach Island, NJ and found out we need to take a full week next year. We've been talking about it for years with Ann & Steve Philpott to take the kids to the beach. Steve's parents have a house there so they make the trek a couple of times each summer. Poppy and Mom-Mom opened their house to us to use as a base point. They had also just added an upstairs with 5 twin beds. Just enough for our two oldest to sleep over with Will and Cole. Will and Dylan are two weeks old and we met the Philpotts back when the boys started daycare together. Cole is a few months older than Chloe. They all get along very well. Steph, Addie and I holed up in a motel not too far down the road. The kids didn't even go see it until the last day there. Chloe came over to help pack and mentioned that she was really glad she got to stay with Will and Cole because our motel didn't even have room service. I guess she gets used to staying in Marriotts too.

We drove up on Saturday morning. Big Mistake, Huge. Ann & Steve forgot to mention the Saturday morning traffic might be bad. We basically went Saturday instead of Friday night because we wanted to save a bit on the hotel cost. We weren't getting the employee discount there. The trip itself should take about 4 hours. We got 13 miles away from our destination according to the GPS and came to a standstill. Now, I'm a pretty laid back guy and don't get rattled easily. I also travel very well and don't get antsy about being in the car for long periods of time - I leave that to SWMBO and Dylan. I tell you what though, we went 3 miles over the next hour. I was a little tired because we hosted Happy Hour the night before and I didn't get to bed very early and then got up early to get on the road. Needless to say I was a little punchy to begin with and I hate not moving and sitting in traffic so I was on a roll. I'm not sure the family had seen me like that before. I was talking with other cars (well really the people in the cars, I wasn't that out of it - yet) singing songs and making jokes. I really needed to get out of the car, hit the beach and have a cold beverage. So six hours after we left home for a four hour drive, a four hour drive (think Gilligan's Island) we made it to the beach. It was everything we needed. Surf, sun and a beer. Next time we'll splurge for an extra night in the motel. It took Ann and Steve only 3.5 hours to drive up on Friday...

After some body surfing, wave battling and playing wave masters (a game Steph and Dylan made up) we packed up and headed to the Philpott home to get cleaned up and eat dinner. Poppy is a bit of a cook himself and made some ribs, burgers and dogs. After a few hours of chatting on the back patio Steph and I headed to the motel for some much needed rest. We had checked in and set up the pack-n-play earlier so all we did was put Addie down and plop into bed.
Next day was more fun at the beach, but with toys! Steph made a run to the local surf shop (read expensive place) and picked up a skim board and a body board. The body board was essential to those of us who like to body surf but don't like getting chests and stomachs scraped up in the sand when riding the wave all the way in. The body board gives you a better ride and reduces the sand scrapes to the legs. The skim board on the other hand is like trying to slide on ice. The idea is to wait for the wave to come in and when there is about 1/2 inch of water start jogging, toss the board down, jump on and surf/skim the wave into the water. It's best done on a flatter area of sand for beginners. Needless to say we were beginners and we didn't have a flat area. After numerous falls and heavy laughter from the peanut gallery watching I did master the skim -for about 3 feet and I didn't fall. I determined after seeing other and more proficient kids doing that on bigger boards, that Steph just got me the wrong size skimboard. Maybe next year I'll go bigger.
That night after getting cleaned up we had one of the most delicious meals I've had in a long time. Poppy went fishing that morning and caught a couple flounder so we had that in a white wine and caper sauce along with some Shrimp Diablo - shrimp in a spicy sauce and bread for dipping. Incredible.
Monday was our last day there so after breakfast we tried to squeeze in as much beach time as possible. We headed out just before dinner so we could grab some seafood on the way out. We headed out to a souvenir shop that also sold Chamelia charms. Steph was getting a crab charm as a reminder of our trip to Tilghman Island and the beach. Poppy gave us a couple of places to stop. Charm shopping went off without a problem but food was not working for us. every seafood place we stopped was jam packed so after trying 4 places with an hour wait we went to a Joe-Pops surf bar and grill. We didn't think it would be that bad but it was basically a nightclub that served dinner. The kids loved it and thought it was cool. For Steph and I, it just wasn't what we wanted for our final dinner on the island. We tried to put on a happy face for the kids because we decided that they liked it and it was building memories for them. We didn't want our food snobbiness to sour that memory.
Thanks to the Philpott clan for hosting and letting us hang out for the weekend.