Showing posts with label Bethany Beach. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Bethany Beach. Show all posts

Monday, July 11, 2011

Bethany Beach 2011



One of the unintended consequences of always being delinquent with my posts is that I get to relive the best moments of our lives days or weeks later, after the sheer joy of the moment has passed and life has moved on. That is totally the case right now, as I am recounting a delightfully lazy week at Bethany Beach back at the end of June.



To be honest, there isn't a ton to say about our trip. We were utterly lazy, but it was just what we needed. We needed to relax, relinquish our schedules and unplug. Mark and I didn't send each other Outlook calendar appointments for anything all week. If I had to summarize the theme of our trip, it would be "beach, bbq, repeat."


But there were definitely some memorable moments.

The trip actually started off a little rocky...rain in the forecast all week. Our first full day was a total washout. We were housebound for the majority of the day. I went through every. single. craft. toy. book. I had brought to keep Lyla occupied in the event of rain. By 10:45 I think I officially declared it the longest day of my life.







On Father's Day, I took my father-in-law to a gay bar. Yup, that's right. I found a restaurant in Rehobeth that sounded great, so we made a reservation for Father's Day. When I walked up to the restaurant, I saw that there were all men at the bar. Mark is looking at me with a smirk as I'm thinking, "is this...", then a man with no shirt and leather shorts walks right past me, and I say to myself, "yes, this is." The food was amazing, as was the live entertainment (just ask Bammie).









We ate a lot of ice cream.






Cupcakes for breakfast? Totally legit on vacation.


One morning, Lyla and I were up before everyone else so we took a walk down to the beach at around 6:30 am. Me, my girl and an empty beach = perfection. One woman did walk by and told me it was a beautiful picture to see us standing there together. She told me she did the same thing when her children, now college graduates, were Lyla's age.







We made a bunch of really delicious meals together and ate as we watched the most glorious sunsets.


















Can we talk for a minute about these two?



I've said it before, but I'll say it again. Kelly is so amazing with Lyla. They were buddies the entire week (Kelly really had no choice...Lyla followed her around like crazy). I love watching them play together. The other day, I asked Lyla if she had a best friend. I expected her to say Dahlia or her new friend London (or maybe Lighting McQueen), but she immediately said Kelly. How cute is that?












I am laughing because it was nearly impossible to get a picture of me and Lyla. The one time she was willing to sit on my lap, she wouldn't put that bag of animal crackers down for a picture.


Nothing beats sandy beach kisses.





But like I said, mostly we just relaxed.




















See you next year, Bethany.

Friday, August 6, 2010

Ocean City



We took a side trip to Ocean City one day when Lyla was particularly cranky.  We figured she would fall asleep on the ride there and Mark could show me his old stomping grounds. Well, that didn't happen and Lyla happily accompanied us the whole day without napping.

Ocean City is kind of a trip. It's sort of stuck in the '50s, populated with hotels called the "Shangri La" and the "Sea Breeze". There are tons of old school concessions on the pier and an absurd number of mini-golf courses around the city.   Kitschy is an understatement, but we had fun walking the boardwalk and taking it all in.









Mark used to go to Ocean City in high school and loves pointing out all the hotels and bars where he spent his time. One of those places is Seacrets, a huge restaurant/bar, where the floor is all sand and you can paddle up and get served while sitting in an inner tube. We stopped there for lunch so I could get the full Seacrets "experience"

Lyla right before she fell out of the booth...In all fairness to me, the booths weren't connected to the walls and another kid did the same thing about 10 minutes later. Luckily, the floor was made of sand ;)


Mommy needed a nice cold drink after that tumble.


And she's off. "Mommy, this floor is made of SAND"


Lyla finally fell asleep just as we were making the last turn to go home.