We're on vacation! (I was going to start with an apology for my absence but it seems like every post these days starts like that so...) Specifically, we're at the beach house. We arrived Saturday afternoon and my parents joined us for the first half of the week. Due to some issues with billing addresses, we realized our cable and internet had been cut off. Luckily, we discovered that before we left town to come here and could attempt to remedy the sitch. Unluckily, the technician couldn't come to our house until late Monday morning. That means we had no cable or internet for the first 48 hours here.
So we had to entertain ourselves. No biggie, right? Here's a quick story of how we did that on Day One.
We took the dogs on a long walk on the beach (pictures coming - Lolli hated the ocean) before coming back to hang out on the screened-in patio. We play a lot of Spades (the card game) in our family so Doc broke out the deck of cards for a friendly competition. It was the most bizarre game of Spades I've ever been involved in. If you're familiar with the game, I'll tell you this: at least one person went Low in each of the first 5 rounds and at least one team was set (either from Low, not catching enough tricks, or too many sandbags) in every one of those rounds. We normally play to 500 but since we weren't even in the positive after 5 rounds, we played to 150. (Full disclosure: Mom and Dad beat me and Doc in the final round.)
After the game we walked to the Mexican restaurant that is just a couple of blocks away. Our waiter gave me a hard time when I ordered a virgin daiquiri but backed off when I showed him my belly. "Ok, Princess. I'll make it pretty for you." At least he got my title right. Mom had a pineapple margarita that, halfway through the meal, had her reclining in her seat saying "Oh man, I could just lie down right here and go to sleep!" This is important to remember for the rest of this story...
After dinner, it was Dad's idea to go on a little bike ride. We could hear live music coming from Rosemary so I suggested we go check it out and see what was going on. Our house is in Seacrest but practically backs right up to Rosemary. Thanks to a fence line that runs between the two, though, you have to go back out to the main street to get there. No cutting through the neighborhood.
So we drug the bikes out and, after airing up the tires, hopped on them to go for a ride. Mom and Dad got the bikes that Anna and Wyatt used the last time we were here so they were riding a little low. We didn't think to adjust the seats before leaving.
When we got to Rosemary we didn't see anything going on at all. I mean, there were lots of people milling about like any other night, but definitely no live music anywhere. But we were already there so we rode through the back neighborhood. Doc was in the lead as we passed cruised around the residential streets. We passed a big group of girls having a bachelorette party and lots of people out on their patios. Occasionally we'd come to a street with no porch lights on so we'd have to ride through the dark.
Finally, I heard the live music again. "It's that way!" I shouted to Doc so he could lead us to the music. The closer we got, the louder the music got, and we soon realized we were approaching a wedding reception. There was a block of open space (a park maybe?) in the middle of the neighborhood where white tents and twinkle lights and tables had been set up. It was a fancy reception, one where the tables were draped with white table cloths and wait staff walked around in black suits while the little kids ran around barefooted on the plush green grass in their Vineyard Vines clothing. A live band was playing from a stage and a dance floor had been constructed right in front of it. The reception was in full swing with the bulk of the guests out on the dance floor, surrounding the bride and groom and jumping up and down to the music.
One side of the block had a row of bushes bordering it. It was those bushes that we were riding behind as we approached the big event. As we neared the corner, I slowed down behind Doc. I was nervous about intruding on the reception but, like he said, it was a public street. We were about to be riding along side the dance floor of the reception where we'd have no more bushes to hide behind. My mom ended up passing me around the corner so my Dad and I brought up the rear.
Dance To The Music.
That was the song that was playing as we rode by the dance floor. It's also the song that was playing when my mom drove her bike into the grass and crashed right into a pole. She hugged the pole. As in, she physically had to wrap both of her arms around the pole to keep from face planting in front of the whole reception.
Once past the reception, I had to pull my bike off to the side because I could. not. stop laughing. I was sure I was either going to lose my dinner or wet my pants. Thankfully, aside from the tears rolling down my cheeks, I managed to keep everything in.
Needless to say, we're having lots of fun. More later!