Sunday, June 9 - 10:30 am
Last year, we went to Broadkill Beach in Delaware. We picked this beach because it is dog-friendly all year round. I found a house that was located right on the beach and hubby LOVED it. I enjoyed it too. It was really quiet and we could just hang out.
When Hurricane Sandy came through in October, I found
footage that showed a glimpes of the house where we stayed and figured they probably had some water damage. Last year, there was a little barge right at the back of the house. It's gone now and you walk right out to the beach.
This year, we are staying in the same house. We were very concerned about the traffic. Last year, we came up on a Sunday. This year, Saturday. We were very lucky. Hardly any traffic.
We took our first walk on the beach and hit the motherload. There were a LOT of conch shells - and I mean WHOLE conch shells on the beach. WHAT??!!! Both Dan and I were so excited. We both didn't plan on getting any shells (or stones - last year, there were a bunch of granite stones). We ended up picking up about 6 of them. Then we couldn't carry any more!
There are more people here than last year. I can remember the people to the left being here (because of their dogs), but this year we are surrounded by people. Including the owner's daughter, son-in-law and grandchild upstairs. DANG IT! Didn't think it would be too bad, BUT you can hear EVERYTHING. The kid is young and is just making noises (no screaming babies yet). I can basically hear their converstations and the best part - the toliet must be right above where we are sleeping because during the night.I heard them toot when they were in there and then a flush. GREAT!
Sleeping arrangements aren't the best. As last year, Esa has claimed the full size bed and Dan and I are in the separate twin beds. Not a big deal. Until you get Zed in a twin size bed with you! Talk about a bed hog! So I didn't sleep too well/was kind of stiff this morning from not moving around much. The best story. During the night, I thought they were doing something upstairs because it sounded like maybe the baby was in a rocker and it was creaking the floor. NOPE - it was ZED SNORING!
Zed seems to be doing much better this year. Last year, it took him awhile to relax. He just seemed nervous for the first couple of days.
This morning, we went for a 2 mile walk. There aren't as many horseshoe crabs as last year. Our daily ritual was turning over the crabs so that the would live. We met a couple of dogs & people. We only saw one conch shell & it was living.
8 pm
This evening, we went for about a 1.5 mile walk. We basically had the beach to ourselves.
We were daring and let Esa off leash. We are always hesitant because we just don't know if she will listen or not. There were a couple of times that she didn't come right back (and headed towards off beach) and we had to walk up to her, but for the majority of the time, she did great. As always, no issues with Zed.
Not that we would ever expect Esa to go into the water, but she looked at the water coming in and out today.
Monday, June 10
11 am
So the rain has started. We expected it - the forecast said 80% chance of rain today. We were able to get about a 1.5 mile walk in this morning.
Zed leading the walk this morning.
Today will be catching up on e-mails and probably some scrapbooking.
9 pm
Yup - scrapbooking day! Plus a really good nap day. It downpoured quite a bit, but we were able to get a 2 mile walk in around 7:30.
Tuesday, June 11 - 11 am
Well, I think our upstairs guests have left. Not sure when they left during the day yesterday, but they didn't come back last night. Both of us are happy. The baby wasn't bad, but it sucks when you aren't used to kids. How would they feel if our dogs were barking all of the time?
We went on a 2 mile walk this morning. We met up with Grizzle again and got chatting with his owner. She used to live in Front Royal and worked in Ashburn. We were talking about the storm last night - just waiting for it to hit here, but it didn't. At home, the neighborhood lost power for 7 to 9 hours. Not sure if a line was down or if there was an accident. The freezer should be good and the refrigerator was basically empty.
Speaking of the freezer, the refrigerator freezer has an issue. Of course it happens the day before vacation. I thought it I had just dropped an ice cube, but it was more than that. We emptied out the freezer side and put everything in the chest freezer in the basement. And Handyman Dan, worked on it.
Looks like a tube is leaking from the inside. We'll be dealing with that when we get back. I tell you, 10 years in a house and you might as well replace everything. We've already replaced the A/C, next might possibly be the furnace.
Back to the walk. We saw another dead baby shark. I forgot to post that we saw one last night.
Surprise, surprise - Esa was playing in the water with Dan some!
3pm
So our view will probably be changing. Like I mentioned earlier, the beach has changed some because of Hurricane Sandy. Yesterday, they were changing the seashell road (which was new) in front of the house. Today they have added surveyor's sticks and a BIG beam. I know the house in to the left front of us is missing a utility pole, but it looks like they are going to actually build. There were house beams on the beach last year and they are now missing. They may be just replacing them.
The view to the left last year (2012).
Wednesday, June 12 - 7:30 am
Last night, we met up with my family for dinner. They are in Ocean City, MD about 50 miles away, so we met half way. We had a great time at a little restuarant called
Blue Water Grill. The food was wonderful.
We saw something that you usually just see in the country or maybe on the highway. A chicken truck - or should I say 7 chicken trucks. Not really something you want to see when you are at a restaurant.
My niece, Chrissy, & I shared the best pie ever - Peanut Butter Pie - with Reese's on top and an Oreo crust.
We went for a 2 mile walk when we got home and what did I find on the beach? A hermit crab!
11:30 am
So, not a quiet morning. They are putting structural beams in the sand which leads to a bang, bang, bang X many for each beam. Then times that time about 10 beams. There goes our view too. They really might be putting in a house :(.
Thursday, June 13, 2013 - 11 am
We got in a 2 mile walk before the storm. They finished the beams and left the crane, so if lightening strikes, it's going to be close - like 50 feet from the house. They almost lost the metal beam into the house. It wasn't secure and started to fall into the house. Luckily, they got it before it fell.
The walk included another shark - an even larger shark.
and I found the smallest conch shell we have ever seen.
Guess what - it was occupied.
Friday, June 14 - 12 noon
Well, this morning has been long and dreary. It's been overcast, WINDY, and rainy. Esa has been up since 6 am. We were going to go to the park, but I really don't feel like going out in the crazy wind. Seriously crazy wind. I think that is why Esa woke up so early. Anyway, Dan and I are going to go finish his geocaching goal of getting these 50 caches that are in a big X. He went the other day (Wednesday), and got 45 of them.
Since yesterday was pretty dreary, I did some more scrapbooking. I started our 11th anniversary scrapbook.
5 pm -
The beach was almost gone this afternoon from the storms.
The weather cleared up so we took the pups for a walk and then went geocaching for the final 5 that Dan missed the other day. Success - including getting wet.
When we got home, we found a surpise - the pups had gotten into the walking bag that has water, poop bags & treats. They ate all of the treats.
I've started to pack. I definitely didn't read as much as I thought I would. That's what happens when there's internet and tv.
Monday, June 17 - 10:30 am
Time to get back in the swing of things. The drive home on Saturday was uneventful. We obviously picked the right week again this year because all of the traffic was going east and was backed up.
We got to meet the cleaning lady for the house. She was told to clean at 10 am and we were told 11 am to be out. We were packing up and almost done when she showed up.
Our last walk on the beach included seeing dolphins! We were both so excited to see that. We saw another dead shark on the beach and a TON of horseshoe crabs flipped over on the beach. Our goal for the walk was flipping as many over.
Flipped over horseshoe crabs
The pups checking out one that we flipped
close up of the shark teeth - this shark was maybe 1 1/2 feet long.
We are hesitant about going back next year to the same house since there will be a big house in front of the house we stayed at.
The new view (before they picked up the construction equipment.
Crazy looking clouds coming in on Friday night - never rained, but got really windy.
