A Beachy Hodgepodge

Welcome to this week's Wednesday Hodgepodge. If you've answered today's questions add your link at the end of my post, then be sure to leave a comment for the blogger before you. Here we go...

1. When does time pass slowly for you? When does time past quickly for you? 

Slowly? I could answer this in a number of ways but let's go with the obvious...time passes slowly while  wearing a boot in the middle of summer in order to heal a stress fracture. 'nuff said. 

Quickly? Now. This season of life. After a certain age you are just hyper aware of the passing of time, or at least I am. 

2. Do you have a favorite beach? What's your favorite 'beach' activity? Tell us what we'd find in your beach bag.

I wrote a post on Tuesday about my favorite beach. I love many beaches but if I have to pick a favorite the one I wrote about would be numero uno. Marco Island Florida. You can read the post here-Just Beachy

My favorite beach activity-a low beach chair at the edge of the water,  just far enough in to the surf to feel it wash over my feet, but not so far in that the water swamps me and the book on my lap. 

In my beach bag-sunscreen, a towel, a book, snacks, goggles, a coverup, chapstick with spf,  diving rings for the kids, a comb, a pair of quick dry shorts, and my accupressure bands for any unanticipated rocky boat rides.  

3. Your favorite book or movie with a beach setting? 

Book-The Shell Seekers by Rosamunde Pilcher...if you've never read this one I recommend. 

4. What's a food you love, but find it's a pain to eat? Is it worth it? 

Steamed blue crabs coated in Old Bay. Is it worth it? 1000% yes. Now look at these babies...

This picture was taken the day we met our now son-in-law for the very first time. He was doing a stint at Walter Reed Hospital, daughter1 lived in D.C,  and we were in Annapolis for something, so we all met to spend the day together. You should know we lived in Annapolis for nine years and are crab snobs. 

Maryland blue crabs (they're blue before they're steamed) eaten beside the water are the best and I won't argue about this. 

Anyway, we walked around town and made him  asked him to pose in front of the Naval Academy sign, much to his dismay (he was Army). Afterwards we had a crab feast at one of our favorite places on one of the hottest days of the year. And now here we are twelve years later, they have three kids and are living 4 miles from us in a South Carolina lake town. Time is funny. 

5.  Do you like roller coasters? What's the best (or worst) roller coaster you've been on? 

I am not a fan of roller coasters. I have never been a fan of roller coasters. In fact, I will go so far as to say if I never get talked into taking a ride another roller coaster ever ever ever it's all good. 

I liked The Thunder Mountain Railroad at Disney. Is that considered a coaster? 

6. Insert your own random thought here. 

We've been living on tomato sandwiches this month. Daughter1's mother-in-law brought us a big bag full from their garden,  and now we're dining on some from our own plant too...

I know I'm breaking one of the cardinal rules of tomato sandwiches here by making ours on wheat bread, but we don't eat white bread and wheat, very lightly toasted, is delish.  I do use the required mayo which is a no-brainer since I live in the land of Dukes. 

Also it's the best. 

Weekend Shenanigans

Linking with Holly and Sarah for their Hello Monday hop today. 

What a fun weekend! 

Ours started on Wednesday (hey, we're retired) when we got on the road pointed north. I had booked a hair appointment that morning so we got a little later start than normal, but we made good time and arrived at hub's brother and sister-in-law's house in Richmond in time for dinner.

We hadn't seen them in person in a long while and it was fun to catch up at one of our favorite spots there-Joes Inn The Fan for anyone who knows Richmond. Once upon a time, pre-children in fact, hubs and I lived in this town and we still love visiting there.  

We got up Thursday to drive the rest of the way into Annapolis, yet another place we used to live that can still make our hearts go pitter pat. 

Wait! I'm leaving out something important. Before we pulled away we had to hide the family lizard. Every family has one, right? 

This lizard has been in hubs family for more than two decades and has traveled here there and everywhere with various family members. If the lizard ends up in your possession you have to very discreetly pass it on to another family member without their discovering it until you're on the road out of town. 

Success! 

We took the back roads into Annapolis as opposed to the interstate (95 is possibly the worst one in America) and we made a stop en route at a little antique shop we always enjoy browsing-

It's an eclectic collection to say the least. 

We pulled in to Annapolis and went straight to another favorite spot (McGarvey's Tavern) for a light lunch. Well mine was light...hubs had a crab cake sandwich because when in crabtown...

Now that's a crabcake. 

I had their delicious Maryland Crab soup and just like that it felt like we were back in 1998 raising pony-tailed little girls beside the Bay. 

We love this town. 

We met some friends for dinner Thursday evening (O'Leary's since I'm sharing all the best places) and enjoyed dining on their lobster special (delish!!) and hearing what's new in their lives. 

After dinner hubs and I went over to a little spot in the west end to meet up with the bride and groom and their friends and family for a little pre-wedding welcome celebration. 

The Little Tykes gang as I like to call them.

The groom (that's him in the center back) and his sisters (also in the picture) lived across the court from us way back when. Together with our girls they logged a lot of miles on the Little Tykes cars, drew a million chalk houses on the driveway, played 'Pioneer' in our side yard, and lived the best day of their life in 1996 when the blizzard to beat all blizzards struck the East Coast and we had a party to celebrate in our court. 

There was a snow mountain courtesy of the plow, a fire in the middle of the street using metal struts from our basement remodel as a platform, and neighbors young and not so young bundled up in beach chairs sipping cups of mulled wine. It was a happy place to be a kid. 

A happy place to be a mom too. 

Hubs and I began our Friday with breakfast at an Annapolis institution called Chick and Ruth's. The pledge is still recited there every morning, which is such a fun tradition. 

After breakfast we took a long walk. We trekked over to the Naval Academy and across their extensive grounds, stopping for a moment beside the sea wall to picture our girls when they were girls and not grown married women with girls of their own, in their hula hoops, waiting on the July 4 fireworks to splash across the sky. Time marches on...

Pictures and geography wing you back.  

There's a new (to us) spot on Ego Alley called The Choptank, and we went up on their rooftop for the downtown view and to sample their orange crush. Our hometown lake cabana makes an orange crush and we like to compare when we can. 

This one was good, a little sweeter than ours, but still yummy. 

We walked up and down the cobbled brick sidewalks of this old town saying hey remember when...we popped in shops and then of course indulged in the world's best crab dip courtesy of McGarvey's. This was daughter2's favorite food when we lived in Maryland and we had to order one so we could send a picture. Yes, they give you an entire loaf of warm bread for dipping. 

Two actually, which is why this is not a dish to have on the regular-ha! 

The wedding was Friday evening in a beautiful venue on the South River called London Town and Gardens. It's actually an historical site, but they host events and weddings too. The rain held off and the whole evening was lovely.

And then suddenly it's Saturday morning, time to reload the car and aim it south. 

Home. 

We've had more than a few, you know. We've tucked people and places and precious memories in our pockets all along the way. 

We carry them with us wherever we may roam. 

Time Passages

Today is my birthday and my plan is to sip coffee on the porch in my pjs until I feel like doing something else. Daughter2 is coming out for dinner and she might just find me on the porch sipping coffee in my pjs when she arrives.

I kid. I've never been that person who stays in their pjs all day. I might stay in my bathing suit all day, but definitely not my pjs.

When I'm through sipping coffee I have big plans to take my book and my raft and float beside the dock. Hubs will tie a line to the raft so I don't float away because I honestly plan to be that chill. We have road tripped over 1100 miles in the past ten days and I'm ready for a day of doing nothing.

The first stop on our road trip was Annapolis. We lived there once upon a time or was it only yesterday? Our house sat in a cozy little cul-de-sac where kids gathered in the middle of the street to ride big wheels and bicycles and slap hockey pucks with too big sticks.

Where they drew houses made of chalk and played flashlight tag as cicada sang their goodnight song. Where mothers walked to the bus stop and could be counted on to pick up a sick child from school if you were out of reach. A sweet safe place to be a kid.

It doesn't seem that long ago, yet there we were Saturday before last watching one of those littles walk down the aisle to her waiting groom.

Time slips by and you hardly notice until you notice.

Fifteen years ago we moved to England. We pulled out of that cul-de-sac in a hired car, tissue in hand, while our neighbors stood in the driveway and waved goodbye til we were out of sight. It was raining and there were tears, I do remember that. Some of them were mine.

What were we doing?

We didn't know exactly but we buckled in to our airplane seats and the next chapter of our lives and soared on into the future.  And these girls...

One already a Mrs. and a mama and one soon to be a Mrs.

Time presses on.

Hubs and I spent a few days with my mom on this most recent road trip. Something warm and familiar wraps itself around me as we pull into the drive. I marvel at the way I can walk through the front door and feel like I still live there. I pray I always remember the way home feels.

Technically I haven't called this place 'home' in some forty years. I know this for certain because I have a high school reunion happening next week. A reunion I won't be able to attend, but I do think about the number and the years and the friends all the same.

Forty years ago I graduated from high school? Can that be right? Didn't my soon-to-be Mrs. just graduate from high school? I guess not.

Time is funny.

Also bittersweet, slower than molasses, and faster than the speed of light. Mostly though, it's precious. Oh so very precious.

On my birthday I'll be grateful for the gift of another day. For girls who bloom where they're planted but keep their momma close in heart. For friends always near no matter how far the miles or years between. For family and home and memory.

For what's behind and what's ahead and all that glorious in between.

Crab Town

Daughter1's boyfriend is in the DC area for the month of July, and she really wanted us to meet him. We had exactly one weekend with a window just wide enough to squeeze through, so Saturday was the day.

In the meantime hubs had a work trip to Canada added to his calendar, but not a problem because he was still supposed to arrive home Friday evening. The plan was I would pick him up at the airport and then we'd drive down to my moms in South Jersey to spend the night. Our pup was going to hang out with Mema while we drove a little further south to meet our girl in Annapolis on Saturday around noon.  That was the plan.  

You know what they say about plans, don't you?  

Friday afternoon hubs phoned about 4 pm to let me know he'd finished his meeting, and had arrived at the Toronto airport. He said his flight was already delayed, and he'd keep me posted. At 11:30 PM they finally cancelled his flight. Like I said, no biggie...just seven hours wiled away in an airport on a Friday night.  Bother.

We could salvage the weekend though, because they put him on another flight arriving in Newark at 8 am Saturday morning. We figured we could still drop the dog at my mom's house and be in Annapolis about noon as originally planned. 

There's that word again-plan.

He phoned again at 1:15 am to say the Saturday morning Newark flight was also now cancelled, and he'd gotten on a flight to Dulles (D.C.) arriving at 7:30 Saturday morning, and could I please let daughter1 know she'd need to trek to Dulles to collect him. 

For every wonderfully uneventful, somewhat exotic flight he takes, there are ten trips in between that go like this. Its why the frequent business travelers deserve their upgrades and airline rewards. 

Hubs is a trooper though, so he went to bed at 2, got up at 4:00, and arrived fresh as a daisy in DC at 7:30 am on Saturday.  I drove to my moms, said hello and goodbye, left the dog in her favorite spot, and trekked on to Annapolis to meet up with everyone.   

We were finally all in the same place at the same time around 1. That's the Maryland capitol building in the background, and please just ignore the guy in green trying to untether his boat from the dock. We strolled down to the waterfront before deciding what we really needed was a serious blast of air conditioning. Holy moly it was hot! Too hot to be walking around town, but not too hot for some of our favorite mussels and the world's best crab dip. 

I challenge anyone to prove me wrong on that last point. When we lived in Annapolis and ate in this little spot, Daughter2 would order the crab dip as her entree. That bread is just the right degree of warm.

We sat and chatted until we felt like we could brave the heat again, and then walked over to the US Naval Academy to look around.  Daughter1's boyfriend is an Army guy, so I had to convince him he needed to stand under the Navy sign for this picture.

We looked at some of the indoor exhibits because the walk over about killed us.
Did I mention the heat?

The grounds are so pretty, but I didn't take a lot of photos...it was just too hot to fool with my camera.  I did snap a couple of the gorgeous chapel, and we did go down in the crypt to see where John Paul Jones is buried because it's interesting, and also because it's air conditioned.

As it happened a newly married couple and their wedding party were coming out of the chapel as we approached.
 

I could not imagine being in a dress uniform or a bridal gown in the crazy heat, but I have to say the bride was beaming.  I love that he's carrying her dress, and she didn't seem to notice the temperature at all. So pretty!

Speaking of pretty~

We felt it was our duty to introduce the boyfriend to the fine art of picking a Maryland blue crab. Course when they're steamed they're no longer blue, but instead turn a delectable shade of pink with a hefty sprinkling of Old Bay Seasoning on top.

This place is always booming. We got there late afternoon, and the temp had dropped maybe an eighth of a degree so we sat outside (under the awning where the ceiling fans whirred) and enjoyed a long leisurely lunch/dinner beside the water.

Picking crabs beside the water makes my list of top five favorite life experiences. You should try it, but definitely go with someone who knows crabs...we always smile at the people who come in asking for bibs and a fork.

You know what I'm gonna say next don't you?  The day went too fast. That's what I always say whenever I have time with one or both of my girls.  And in spite of the heat, and the hoops we had to jump through to make it happen, we had a great day together...

 We always do.