Back from the Beach

We're back from our yearly beach week with the Stells. It was wonderful to see everyone, especially after missing last year. The week got off to a really bad start with the drive down. We caravaned in three cars - Eric, Sawyer and I in one, Megan, Ryan and Caroline in the second, and Grandy, Erin and Rob in the third. We met at Megan and Ryan's house and set out around 10:00 Saturday morning, planning to stop for lunch around Williamsburg and arrive at the beach around 4:00; the rental office opened at 3:00 and the drive normally takes us 5 hours plus stopping time. Good plan, right? Well, it was not to be. Traffic on I95 was horrendous. After 2 hours, we were only as far as Stafford. And that was as far as we would go for a while, because at that point Erin noticed smoke pouring out from under Grandy's car. So we all waited for the tow truck, and then followed it to a repair shop where we waited until we could get a rental. Rob had been driving Grandy's car and was pretty shaken up by what had happened, mostly because the day before he had been in a car accident and he was worried that he was cursed in some way.

By the time we were ready to go again it was lunch time, so we found a place to eat and then set off again into the still terrible traffic. We didn't reach the bridge onto Southern Shores until 8:00. At that point we had all given up trying to caravan and had been separated for quite a while. Eric and I stopped in at Walmart to get another copy of Harry Potter so he could continue reading on his own (I had been reading aloud to him for the whole drive). When we got back in the car we got a call from Erin saying that they had been in a car accident in the rental car. Someone had rear-ended them in the stop-and-go traffic of the island road. Luckily no one was hurt and damage to the car was minimal, but Robbie was even more freaked out. What are the chances of that many car troubles happening to one person in one weekend?

Thankfully, the rest of the trip went uneventfully and we arrived in Corolla around 9:00, safe but thoroughly tired of being in the car.

After that bad start, our week could only get better, and it did. Nothing else bad happened to Robbie - unless you count the time he was in the pool and stuck his hand into the filter and pulled out a huge dead bird. We spent lots of time sitting on the beach and getting sunburned (I'm already peeling!), eating great food (Uncle Billy made his famous fried shrimp twice, and Aunt Carrie made a chocolate chip cookie pie that was to die for - YUM), and watching The Office in the evenings. I had brought the DVDs just in case we had a rainy day, and everyone liked it so much that we watched all three seasons. We were all quoting Michael and Dwight the whole week.

Now we're home and trying to get back into the groove of everyday life, cleaning and cooking and laundry. I wish I was still sitting on the beach.

Here are some pictures of our week: Beach Photos I can't wait for next year!