Winnie and Tom

For the past couple of years at this time, we visit our dear friends at the place they rent, located at the corner of the Atlantic Ocean and the north end of Island Beach State Park at the Jersey Shore.  Winnie and Tom's funny bones are in sync with ours, and when ever we get together, its a laugh a minute, from subject to subject.  We're grateful for this, because they belong to a club which no parent should:  those who have lost a child.  

I always feel my wacky behavior is put to best use when their sides ache from my antics.  At my best, I can be a supplement for high blood pressure and stress reduction.

We arrived at the rented condo mid afternoon last Wednesday, without any commotion like occurred before our arrival last year.  At that time, a woman had gone onto to the dunes to change out of her wet suit, without seeing (or caring that) Tom was on the overlooking balcony.

"Could you tell if she dyed her hair?" I asked.

Laughter from Tom and Winnie, dagger eyes from Genna, my wife.

This year the only thing to discuss when we arrived was what we were going to start drinking.  After an hour or so, we put together an order for pickup at Berkeley Restaurant and Fish Market in South Seaside Park, NJ.  Great place, the seafood is fresher than I was to most of my old girlfriends, and Nick put together our order of  2 lb. lobsters, scallops, steamer clams, corn, potato salad, and cole slaw.

I almost suffered a minor injury trying to sample the size of one of the steamer clams.  I didn't see the blue claw crab in the box to guard the clams, and he took a swipe at me.

Tom and I returned to the condo with our cooked feast, and for the next three hours ate, drank, and laughed into a stupor.  Actually, just Genna ate for the next three hours, while the other three of us drank and laughed.  She had collected everyone else's tiny lobster legs, and tediously drew out all the meat, oblivious to the time versus reward aspect of her effort.

The heavy salt air helped us decide to retire early, which caused me to get up earlier, and see the sunrise from the balcony.

After the rest of the troop became functional, we headed to a buffet breakfast a few blocks away, then packed the car, and headed for home.

Showing Winnie and Tom a good time was one thought I had.  The other was, I could get used to this, I really miss the ocean.