Queen of Rambles

We finally made it home! It’s supposed to be a three hour trip, but it was closer to four and a half. It didn’t help that we hit the beltway at 5 pm, the height of rush hour. But really, I think the three hour estimate is just plain wrong.

We had a fun trip, though a bit chilly and weird. None of us had ever been to the Atlantic (except for a brief Christmas stop at Cape Cod for me) and didn’t have a clue what to expect. It’s just so. . . desolate. There’s sand. There’s water. It’s all flat. I’m used to the rocky Oregon beaches with tide pools, giant boulders, driftwood, big piles of kelp and other stuff littering the beach.

I didn’t really know we were going to a penninsula, so that was a little strange as well. We had a hotel on the north end, which must be the narrowest part. I doubt it was even 1/2 mile wide at the point we were at. We took the boys to the beach as soon as we arrived and were very confused about the tiny little strip of beach. We couldn’t figure out how it supported the flocks of tourist that must arrive as evidenced by the giant hotels with $200-$300/night price tags during the on season. We were quite lucky to miss the on season by about two weeks. We had a lovely, big clean room at Holiday Inn Express for $68. I can’t remember the last time I stayed at a hotel that cheap! Much less a hotel that was as nice as this one!

My mom spied a Mexican restaurant and insisted on eating there even though I told her that you should never eat Mexican out here. She didn’t believe me, so we way over paid for the nastiest food I’ve ever eaten. My mom was convinced that they had someone in the back nuking TV dinners and throwing them on fancy plates. I don’t think that was the case. A TV dinner couldn’t have been that terrible.

This morning Erik woke us up at 6 am, so we had an early start to more beach fun. This time we got in the car and drove all the way to the end of the beach. We started at 137th and ended a little past 1st street, if that tells you anything. We found the board walk! Most things were still closed up, including the amusement park rides, but they had sand and water. The kids played in the sand a long time, we ate lunch, fudge, popcorn and ice cream. The kids played in the sand some more. We drove home.

I forgot to bring an extra pair of shoes, so we stopped at a Wal-Mart and tried to buy a pair of unsanded shoes for me. I thought I cleaned them out, but there was just so much sand that driving was driving me nuts. Of course, the pair I ended up buying didn’t fit very well and was worse than the sandy shoes. I ended up driving the last three hours in bare feet. I do not recommend driving across a giant horrible 4.3 mile suspension bridge with no shoes. Nor do I recommend driving through DC rush hour traffic with no shoes. It adds too much stress to an already stressful situation.

The boys fell asleep in the car, which was a blessing and a curse. A blessing because it shut them up, a curse because they will be up late tonight. Do you think that means Erik will sleep in tomorrow? I’m exhausted. He kicked me in the boobs all night long. No co-sleeping ever again. No no no.

Guess what other happy little thing happened? My stupid period arrived five days early! I didn’t even think to bring my cup. Ugh. I’ve been grouchy and gross all day long. Erik just about got himself left behind in a Wal-Mart trash can.

He just gets so wound up and now that his cousin is here he is about 10 times as likely to express that wound-upness physically. I know boys hit and tackle and stuff, but I hadn’t really seen it in action until this week. Braxton is fine, but Erik is a little whirling dervish. We’re going to have a lot of work to do after Braxton leaves, I think.

I just wish Braxton would stop pooping his pants. I am so, so, so, so very glad I don’t have to deal with that. It’s bad enough to smell it. I personally think they should take him in the bathroom and silently clean him up, then put him in time out for ten minutes. Again, no emotion or talking (yes, I am a 1-2-3 Magic fan). I wonder if that would work. I don’t know, but I know they won’t try it because my sister can’t do “no emotion, no talking.”

Anyway, I guess that is enough of an update. My computer is fixed. I just have to call and give them payment details and they’ll stick it in the mail tomorrow. Maybe I’ll get it back by Tuesday if I’m lucky. I’m really irked that they just left a message here this morning when I specifically told them in my letter to call Mike’s cell phone for payment information. They could have had it in the mail today. Grrrrrr.

This entry was posted on Thursday, April 23rd, 2009 at 8:53 pm and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.