Every family has their traditions, and every family hopefully has some great memories of vacation times gone by. I certainly do. As I mentioned earlier this week my family has done beach vacations for years. It’s funny for those in the extended family because over the years we have come up with a “routine” when we do our beach vacations. My husband has learned to just accept my families quirks when we travel (or at least I think he has). We have times we leave to start the drive down, things we do certain days of the week, and certain meals that are always prepared. One thing for sure is that when we are at the beach my family SITS. That’s right we get up relatively early and start our treck to the beach to begin each day the same…being lazy on the beach.

My dad is always up before the rest of us. Him and my mom each take their respective walks around the area. He then takes all of the beach chairs down to the beach to claim our spot. It’s funny because when I get up and look off our deck he is one of the only people on the sand. But hey…we always have a great spot! Soon after my mom joins him, and then I join them around 9:15 am. We spend the morning mostly talking about pretty much everything. We sometimes break from talking to read,  play paddle ball or go in the ocean but most of the time we just talk. Lunch time is around noon. Since our house is right on the beach we are able to leave our chairs and go take lunch. My mom always fills the house up with way too much junk, but it’s a welcomed treat to my normal diet. Then, it’s back down to the beach around 1. Same as the morning routine…lots of sitting. It is absolutely wonderful! I am a really great sitter…and yes I take pride in that. We sit on the beach till about 3 or 3:30 and come in to nap, shower and get ready for the early 5:30 dinner. That is unless it’s one of the nights we go out to eat…but 5:30 is pretty much dinner time. Then after dinner starts cocktail hour/hours. My family always comes prepared with cocktails. At night we either walk down the boardwalk, play board games, or play bacce ball on the beach. After a long day of sitting we normally hit the sack around 11. We need our rest to enjoy all the sitting we do the next day.

So this is my wonderful beach vacation. It’s not for everyone that is for sure. Not everyone can sit and relax as good as we can, but we love it. Sitting every day listening to the waves crash makes for great therapy. Including today only 3 days left….I will take all the therapy I can get.