7:30 am - My eyes pop open. I throw on some clothes, grab my camera and a handful of peanuts, and I'm out the door.
7:45 am - I'm walking on the morning beach - so different from the midday beach. Different people...joggers, other walkers, wearing tennis shoes and funny hats. Different birds.... some seagulls and egrets, but also pelicans flying in formation low above the waves and those tiny little white ones that dart around just at the edge of the water. There's also a seagull-ish bird with an orange beak. I take pictures of them all, and also of the morning glories climbing the dunes and the black-eyed susans spreading out above them.
8:15 am - The sun performs a dance behind the clouds and finally breaks free. Time for coffee and cinnamon toast back in the room.
10:30 am - Swim suit on, ice chest loaded, beach bag shouldered (holding towel, sunscreen, lip balm, and The Other Boleyn Girl), Bloody Mary in hand. Time to go commune with the sun and sand, serenaded by the music of the crashing waves.
This was my routine Friday and Saturday. Heaven! We lined our eight lounge chairs side-by-side facing the water first thing in the morning so we could come and go all day. I almost finished my book! Besides total relaxation on the beach, we watched a few movies (Martian Child - it is so good!) and ate...and ate...and ate...and, oh yeah, I tried to do my homework. Really I did.
Friday night we glammed it up and went out to eat - Trout Street Bar & Grill. Conni's daughter Lauren met a "really hot" guy on the plane flying in from Dallas, and his friend was a bartender at the restaurant. Afterward, some of us went to Sharkey's where this time of year we pretty much have the place to ourselves - a whole wooden dance floor and DJ just for us. "There is a bit of insanity in dancing that does everybody a great deal of good." (Edwin Denby) What a group - our ages ranged from not-quite-23 to 50-something.
Saturday night Conni and Lauren created a feast - stuffed chicken parmigiana. Fabulous! Sunday morning Mary Kay made us a delicious breakfast - a brown betty (with bacon, sausage, fresh fruit, Canadian maple syrup, and mimosas, of course.)
Every pound I gained this weekend was worth it, that's for sure.
Here we are on the last morning - Lauren had an early flight, so I've added a photo of her with her mom.
Tiffany (Mary Kay's niece who flew in from California for this weekend), me, Mary Kay, Nancy, Conni, Cheryl the newlywed, and my sister Brenda, a Hurricane Ike evacuee after-the-fact (doing it in style!)
Spittin' images! Conni and Lauren on our balcony the first evening...we watched Lauren grow up - she graduated with Tommy and also went to UNT with him...she'll graduate in December with double Business degrees - it's hard to believe she is old enough to "Port A" with us!
