The Beach (last vacation post, I swear)

Other than acquiring THE HAT, we did manage to squeeze in a few other activities at the beach. We went to the beach (as in, actually got in the water) a couple of times. My uncle and his family (minus one kid) showed up on Saturday so we all went to the beach together. It was 4th of July weekend. It was insanely crowded, as you can imagine. Traffic was pretty brutal and parking spaces were hard to come by. As we were bobbing around in the ocean waves, one of those message planes flew across: "Jesus is coming." Without missing a beat my uncle said, "I sure hope he didn't drive."

We also drove Go-Karts (or at least the kid did). She tackled a climbing wall, too. We walked on the boardwalk and played games at Marty's Playland. We had delicious Mexican food at Tequila Mockingbird. We spent a few hours at the outlet malls in Delaware (no sales tax, ya'll!) but only came back with stuff for the kid. We also had dinner at a place where I was able to get vegan pizza - yaaaaay!

We left the beach early Monday morning for the long drive back home. I recently installed an app called OurPact. It allows me to control my daughter's iPad remotely. A friend told me about it and I'm so glad she did. Use of the iPad (at night and at other times) has become more and more of an issue. Now I can just shut that shit down. It's glorious. We did run into one snag, though. Because we left so early on Monday morning, the kid didn't turn on her iPad until we were already on the road. Because she was no longer on wifi, she couldn't use the ipad. I had unlocked it but she can only start using her apps again after the ipad acknowledges that the block has been cleared. Anyway, faced with the prospect of the kid not having her ipad for the 12-hour drive ahead, we turned around and drove back to the condo. My dad and stepmom were still sleeping, so we went around back and stood on their deck in order to pick up the wifi long enough for the kid to log in. If any neighbors saw us, I'm sure they must have been puzzling over that scene.

Finally, we got back on the road and completed the long drive. Much to our surprise, the kid did not complain all that much. We stayed overnight and then finished the drive in the morning. We hit very little traffic. We did witness some "road karma." A Mini Cooper blew past me doing at least 90. The speed limit was 70 and I think I was going around 75. I saw him coming in my rear view mirror and got over into the right lane. "He must be in labor," I said.

Two minutes later . . . oh, the glory! That green Mini was pulled over by Ohio's finest. I did my best "ha ha" like that kid on the Simpson's.

Good news - I'm officially done with vacation posts now. Here are the rest of the photos from the trip.

Eatin' fries on the boardwalk with Grandpa


New ride this year

She's in the front, of course.

Keep it classy, OC.





We brought home a Maryland crab to remember our trip!

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