Beach Life Is The Best Life

I grew up on the plains in New York state.  The mountains were only a short drive away with all the mountain lakes, rivers and streams...but I never really spent a lot of time near the ocean until after I was married and we moved to California and later Hawaii.  It's there that I learned to appreciate the sound of the waves lulling me to sleep at night, the rhythm of tides, the sound of the sea animals...seals, seagulls, and other birds...and saw the majestic whales.  I love the muted sounds when the world is shrouded in fog.  I love the smell of sea water.  And a fog horn in the night is honestly like music to my  ears.  But the Ocean waves licking the seashore is one of my most favorite sounds and is like a lullaby for me...whisking me off to a deep and dreamless sleep.  I love being by the sea.  I would really love to live near the ocean if/when we retire.  The best I can do nowadays is visit as often as I can.  So that is where my husband took me for a long weekend.  

We left Thursday night after a long day with grandbaby #1...but it was worth it to wake up the next morning with the long drive behind us.  We didn't realize that it was Cruiser weekend and while our hotel room overlooked the boardwalk and the ocean, we had a front row seat for the "cruiser parade".  They drove right past our hotel, so we only had to step out onto the balcony to watch them drive by.  

We aren't really into cars, but DH found a couple he wouldn't have minded owning.  

I saw a few I remember from my childhood...my Dad had a really old Ford pickup for a while...and the Girl Scout Troop I belonged to would ride around in the back singing Christmas Carols back in the day.  Couldn't do that these days!!  

We thought it would be difficult to do our normal "beach stuff" but they were mostly parked different places and not where we usually like to go.  So we did our favorite things...played several rounds of mini golf, 

visited my favorite cross stitch store (Salty Yarns), had donuts from Laytons every morning, made a stop at the Seaside Country Store for fudge and other goodies, had some ice cream at Dumsers, and found a few cool places to eat...one of them being Surfin Betty's Burgers.  YUM!!  

I didn't get too much stitching done though I did finish one last gift for a friend before I send her her annual Christmas/Birthday gift.  Once she has them in her hand, I'll show pictures.  

Now that the "must dos" are done, I'm hoping to work on some of the UFOs I have sitting around.  I did pick up a few pieces of fabric and floss to kit up some of the patterns I bought from this  years Market...I'm itching to get some of those started!  Next time I should have lots of stitching pictures to show you!  I'm back in the groove, rested, relaxed and ready to stitch!  Happy Stitching!