We popped down to the beach over the weekend for a well-deserved and long overdue vacation. It was a blast. I thought so, anyway. My other half, bless his heart, is not a tent person at all. Even with the luxuries of an inflatable queen-size bed, 400-ct sheets, and a nice clean bathhouse 200 yards away, he groused quite a bit about how tents are such a pain in the tuckus. At first I wondered why all the other tents there were the bitty two-person dome-style kind, but then I caught on quick. It is true that pitching a very large tent in 40-mile-an-hour winds, on sand, presents a certain set of challenges. Trying it with your spouse means you have two choices: work as a team, or divorce. I think option #2 is still out there, depending on whether I suggest ever trying it again.
Two nights really weren't enough. The first and last days were mostly travel. We did get to make our traditional go-kart run, build lots of sandcastles, and splash about in the waves. We also stuffed ourselves silly at Lambert's, which has the advantage of being the only restaurant in the Gulf Shores area where you can get a tasty vegan meal. Plus it feels like eating at my grandmother's house, especially when you consider that at either place you know you're going to see someone wearing both a belt and suspenders.
I slathered the boy in tons of sunscreen, but was slightly more neglectful of myself. I did my face ok, and both shoulders, but my back and arms were pretty well crispy within the first hour. My misery is worsened by the knowledge that I'm a moron.
Unfortunately our short trip was cut even shorter by the weather. Severe thunderstorms started moving in early Saturday morning, so we packed up our tent and left literally minutes before the deluge began. Whew!
I mentioned that Andy is not a tent person. He's a camper person. All the way home he talked about how if we'd been in a camper we could have set up in 5 minutes, packed in 5 minutes, and gone to the bathroom during the night without getting dressed. Yeah, and spent $200 in gas pulling the thing down there. I don't like campers. You might as well stay in a hotel. Someone once said to me that when you stay in a camper, everything you do revolves around the camper. It stuck with me because it nicely summed up my own opinions. When my in-laws take their camper somewhere, they might go for walks, but the bulk of their time is spent sitting right up under their awning or else in the screenhouse. To me that defeats the purpose of camping. (If you can call it that.) Anyway, I do like a nice hot shower, but most other creature comforts I can do without. I was very happy to sleep in the tent, myself.
I was also proud of my boy. He was very "have" the whole time, even during the hideously long ride down and back. The first fussy moment we had out of him was well after we were back home. Turns out he is like bugs and worms after all.
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wakeful dreamer