Playing Hookey, Underneath a Black Coud

7/11/2014

What seemed like a good idea at the time I planned it, turned out to be a whole lot less than perfect!  We flew Benjamin to Ocean City, New Jersey yesterday morning.  Forecast: afternoon showers, emphasis on showers.  Undaunted, we packed our beach chairs, umbrella, digging toys, buckets, snacks, water, sunscreen (are you tired yet?) and towels.  Whew.

From the airport there is a three block hike and two of those blocks have a lot of traffic on them, so you have to look both ways twice, and remind Benjamin that once we said go, that meant go.  No dilly or dally.
Ah, made it to the beach where the sky was an omanis grey and every one returning from the beach, said the water was cold.  Clearly not starting out as planned.  Apparently, I forgot to inform Mother Nature of my brilliant plans to entertain Benjamin at the ocean.

Even though gloomy, we slogged on.  There wasn't too many people at the beach, probably because of the weather - you think?  We set up our chairs, found the digging tools and laid out the towels.  Benjamin and I braved the ocean, which was cool, if not downright cold.  Still, in my mind you can't go to the ocean and not go in.  If you don't, what's the purpose of being there?  Lord knows I don't need any more "old lady" spots!

As Benjamin continued to play in the ocean and attempt fort building in the sand, Jeff became more concerned about our ability to fly home.  The clouds were low and visibility even lower.  I had visions of sleeping in the plane until the storm that was threatening left the area.  Not a happy thought when you're a bit gritty from sand and exhausted from the effort to walk to the ocean and back to the airport.

We got Benjamin showered off and dressed.  Jeff and I were flying home in soggy clothes.  Air traffic control told us that we should be able to fly in and around the storm build-ups, which is what we did.  The ride home was a bit bumpy as the clouds jostled us around a bit.  Benjamin was in the backseat completely unaware of the weather surrounding us.

We made a fine landing in Frederick, and no sooner as we had put the plane in it's parking space, the heavens opened up and by the time Jeff unloaded the plane into the car, got Benjamin out of the plane and buckled into his car seat and helped me get down and into the car - he was soaked completely.

Home at last was warm showers and clothes, dinner very late - 8:00, a brief time for television so that Jeff and I could wind down and then bed for all of us.

Today, Jeff is back at the airport to do some mandatory training for a few hours.  Benjamin and I are going to the movies and hopefully if the rain comes, it will be once we're either: (a) in the theater; or (b) at home.

This morning was all about rinsing out beach shoes, laundry, washing collected seashells, and attempting to organize the chaos of my kitchen after arriving late last night and just throwing things anywhere there was a flat surface!!  Believe me, having my den and kitchen looking messy really puts my OCD into overdrive.

I hope Mother Nature didn't rain on your parade yesterday.

P