At the beach

Tom had 4 days scheduled off, so I managed to get mine to line up with his.  We couldn't get a housesitter, so we packed up the 4 dogs and headed for the beach.  Tom road his motorcycle with sidecar to get some things worked on from the dealer where he bought it.  I drove the car with the two male dogs in crates in the way back, and the two females on beds in the back seat.  We made good time.  We're renting a small beach cottage at one of the biggest surfing areas, so there is a lot of foot traffic going by.  Since our house is all window on one side looking out on the back yard, this is the first time Finnegan has been able to look out at the street and he's loving it.  This morning we found a trail that parallels a pond and ends at the beach.  Lots of the locals use it to get to the beach ~ moms with their kids and dogs, elderly, other dog walkers.  Finn did really well when we met other dogs.  The other 3 are always easy.  They're all liking just doing something different.

This is the town we came to 2 summers ago with the kids.  Andrew had just finished his junior year.  We brought Adam so he'd have a buddy.  Lauren was with us, and her best friend Ronnie was staying not far at his grandparents house.  The boys took surfing lessons and loved it.  Tom took them at 6am when the lessons began and took photos of them.  Andrew used one of the photos for his Myspace avatar.  I think it's still there.  They went to the boardwalk, hung out at the beach & Ronnie's house, and played cards at night.  Adam won a ball for Andrew in some game ~ our little schnauzer Winston plays with it now.  I brought my dog Annie that time ~ she had just been hospitalized with her heart condition so I didn't want to leave her with the housesitter.  We all went out to dinner at a seafood restaurant, and the kids insisted on sitting out on the deck.  Of course the fog came in and we were all shivering.  Dinner got cold before we could finish it.  But we laughed and had such a good time.  We had a great vacation that year.  I'm so glad that we have those memories.   The next year we took a cruise to the Caribbean - this time with Andrew, Lauren, Ronnie, the kids cousin Matt and Tom's sister & her husband.  Andrew had just graduated from high school & would go off to college and that was part of his graduation present.  He always loved doing family events.  Even if it was dinner together.  It won't be the same without him, but we'll continue to do that and remember him, tell stories about him and just feel his presence.

This is our first get away since the funeral.  I'm glad we're here!