Our Beach House

My family has always taken family vacations to the beach, we have done so for as long as I can remember. Some of my favorite memories of my family are from our vacations. This week we are in Sea Isle City, New Jersey. What a wonderful little town. If you are driving through New Jersey from New York, it’s just South of Atlantic City. I love our beach house here. It is right on the beach, has enough space for the whole family, and even though we don’t own it, it feels like “our place” every year we go.

When I was little we used to go to Bethany Beach Delaware. We would stay at a place called Sea Colony. This place was perfect for our family and little kids. It was all condos, and through out the week they had tons of activities for us kids..kind of like camp. From bonfires, to swim meets, to pizza and pool nights. I used to love going there every year. Once I went to college in New York it was more difficult for me to get down to Delaware. The summer of 2002 was our last year going there. I remember because I just graduated college and was devastated that I could not find a job. I was waitressing and they told me I couldn’t take off to go, and I just quit and told them I was going to the beach. It took me 5 hours to get there…and I think I cried alot down there because I was so lost on what I was going to do. The next year after that we decided since we were all older that we’d try Ocean City, Maryland. My parents rented a house right on the beach and it was great. Ocean City was great for our age since we could go to the bars and have fun. The problem was that it was still so far away from where we lived.

When my sister graduated college my parents decided that it would be best to take our vacation in New Jersey. That way, my sister would be able to commute from her new job 1 hour from her new place in Philadelphia, and it would take me about 3 hours. Much better than 5! This is when we found “our house” in Sea Isle. The house is the best. It’s right on the beach/boardwalk. Has more than enough bedrooms to hold our family and is close to the little town. We are spoiled in that we have always had a place right on the beach. When we have to go to the bathroom we just go inside, when it’s lunchtime we leave our stuff on the beach and go eat. We don’t worry about it because we can see it from our deck!

One of my favorite things is falling asleep to the sound of the ocean. I have one of those sound machines, but it certainly isn’t the same. So each night I open my window just a little (don’t want to let out the air conditioning) and listen to the waves crash. It is the best! One downfall is that they don’t allow dogs :(. That means my little Tinkerbell has to stay in NY. It breaks my heart to leave her…yes I know it’s a dog, but it still makes me sad to leave her.

I am always thankful that my parents take us on this trip each year. I love that our whole family gets together for one whole week. My husband will only be there for a few days because of work…but at least he gets to be a part of it. My family has such a great time when we get together. We laugh and talk and it’s perfect.

This year more then others I am so relieved that we are going. With the loss of my pregnancy I am ready to go and check out for the entire week. I think there is something about the salty sea air that just makes it all ok. And I think that sitting in my beach chair for hours on end…listening to the ocean will make everything just that…OK!