My week at Seaside was super relaxing. It truly was a vacation from my full-time household duties. We shared a house with our dear friends, Kelly and Lynn and their four children. Lynn and I bought groceries for our breakfasts, lunches, and snacks. We ate out for supper all nights except one, when Kelly prepared us a shrimp feast! Joe and Leanna and their four children joined us at our house that night. It was a group effort in cooking all of the delicious food we enjoyed that night. The company and conversation were even better than the food!
Although we kept the stackable washer and dryer running 24/7, and I am not exaggerating, with two people washing, drying, folding, and putting away, it did not even seem like a chore. Clean-up after meals was a breeze with paper goods, children who could for the most part clean up after themselves, and two hard working mamas to finish it off.
Many hands make the work light.
I read 3.5 books while at Seaside. I finished the fourth one last night,
The Prophet of Yonwood, which is the third book in the
City of Ember series. I plan to begin the last book in that series soon. I really like to read, and I need to make time to read more often. I am still in the middle of
Little Women, and I bought two more books at Seaside. Which leads me to another favorite part of my vacation.
Sundog Books
That is the quaint little bookstore at Seaside. Three nights after supper we walked to "downtown Seaside" and visited this lovely bookstore. There is something about browsing through books in a small, cozy setting. It is a world of difference between scrolling and clicking on Amazon or even browsing in a super large bookstore like Barnes and Noble. The books just seem so much more inviting. Lynn and I and various children spent about an hour or more in there each night that we visited Sundog Books. The employees were so helpful and friendly, and it was such a pleasant nighttime activity.
Another fun thing we do at Seaside is visit The Seaside Store. More than once. It is the store that sells the Seaside t-shirts and other Seaside items (towels, cups, hats, etc.). Our family loves the Seaside t-shirts, and I let each child choose the color shirt that he wanted. This year I got a salmonish/dark pink long-sleeved shirt. Which proved to be a wise purchase because it was very cool at night, and even cool during the day when on the beach. I wore that shirt multiple times while we were there (even while reading my books in my chair beside the ocean--it was so windy and cool!), because I failed to pack a long sleeve shirt.
We ate at the silver "food trucks" one night. That is a fun treat too. There are several food trucks to choose from with menus ranging from organic vegetables to any kind of grilled cheese you can imagine to hot dogs to barbecue. Most of us chose Barefoot BBQ (because you know the kids get a "free" frisbee with their meal!) Another restaurant that we always eat one meal at is Bud and Alley's Pizza Bar. They serve unique pizzas to hungry diners. I like to get the seafood pizza, which does not have cheese. The last place where I enjoyed supper was Pickles. They have the best burgers and homemade French fries ever. They use organic, locally grown when possible, ingredients. I had the ground chicken burger, and it was delicious!
The only dark spot in an otherwise perfect vacation was that Jimmy had to leave two days early to go back to work. We missed him after he left! Amazingly, I (with the help of all the children, of course) was able to pack all of our belongings into my one vehicle even though we had stuff in both my and Jimmy's car on the way down. Jimmy took home some of the stuff when he left, but we were still packed in like sardines on the way home. That just added to the fun adventure!
8 more days of school. We can do it!
