Since we were stuck in our room in a podunk town in VA waiting for the pool to be cleaned, we entertained ourselves by jumping beds and the boy threatening to turn the heat on in the room.
After totally restless hours of tossing and turning, listening to the a/c unit click on and off (stupid energy saver), and the cackling women in the room next to us, I finally decided to stick my earbuds in my ears and was able to drown out the noise enough to get about 4 hours of sleep. We headed down to the pool in the morning, before checking out and it appeared to be clean and ok for use. We spent an hour in the pool before showering and hitting the road.
We drove the remaining 5 1/2 hours through the beautiful mountains in West Virginia, and then through some really random - almost residential and back woods - places. I'm used to driving to NYC (after all, I've been doing it at least once a year for 18 years) where you take the turnpike the whole way. There was a lot of navigating, so I had to almost pay constant attention. Not fun when your kid wants you to sit in back and watch movies or read or play games.
My husband drove the entire way, and round about Winston-Salem, NC, his driving frightened me enough to make me cry. CRY! He was playing chicken (or whatever you want to call it) with some idiot on the road. He was driving recklessly, weaving in and out of traffic, slamming on is breaks, veering toward this guy, etc. I was so scared. Z was so upset with him for making me cry. After telling him he can do that shit on his own time and not when Z and I are in the car, I didn't speak to him until we arrived NMB, other than to give him directions.
About 20 minutes outside NMB, it started pouring. So hard that people were pulling off the road. My husband, was of course, speeding. It cleared up and then a few minutes later began to hail.
We arrived at The Bay Watch Resort, and I think the front desk clerk upgraded our room because I paid for a non-beach front room. We ended up with beach front, a balcony, 2 bedrooms, full kitchen, spa tub and murphy bed in the living room. I paid $120/night for this room...it was pretty friggin awesome. It was about 5pm by the time we checked in and unloaded, so we didn't bother with renting an umbrella and chairs. We just headed right down to the beach and picked a spot. We spent the next hour or so going in and out of the ocean, digging in the sand and searching for seashells. We headed inside for some dinner. Decided to order pizza so we could get the most of our first few hours before heading to bed. We ordered from the Ultimate California Pizza. I ordered the usual all meat pizza for Dan and concocted what ended up being the best pizza I have ever had in my life for the boy and I. Pepperoni, hot peppers, black olives and smoked gouda cheese. It was a dream.
Saturday morning, after a 30 minute battle to get the boy to take his antibiotics (was diagnosed with pink eye on Monday), and after an hour long punishment of staying in the room, we headed down to the beach and enjoyed our rented ($25/day) umbrella and chairs. The breeze and getting in and out of the water frequently, made the 95 degree weather almost bearable. Plus, drinking beer helped. We packed up our bags and headed up to our room to change for lunch. On the walk, not realizing how hot the sand would be once we were away from the wet/water soaked sand...the bottoms of my feet were getting burned with every step. I was able to stop long enough to dig my flip flops out of our bag and put them on only to hobble the rest of the way to our hotel. We went into town for lunch and nearly passed out when we stepped out of the car and onto the pavement. It had to be 105 degrees or hotter. Disgusting! At lunch, I checked the bottoms of my feet...sure enough...BLISTERS. 4 of my toes had big fat blisters on the bottoms. Yippee!!! We ate, picked up a few groceries at WalMart and headed back to the beach. I never thought I would WANT to go back to the beach, but despite the blistered toes it was so much cooler than in town. It was a relief to get back and I made sure to wear my flip flops when we walked in the sand. We spent some time in the pools too. Later, we changed our clothes and headed to dinner before going to Mel and Jacques' beach house for a "night before the wedding gathering". We had fun playing in the pool, drinking beer and hanging out.
Sunday morning came early, and we got dressed for the wedding. I wore a maxi dress and Z and daddy both wore linen pants and nice shirts. I was a bit shocked by what some of the guests were wearing. Swim trunks and tshirts, jean shorts and tshirts, etc. Um...it's still a wedding. No matter that it was hot as hell, and on a beach. STILL A WEDDING. Respect. Anyway, at 10am it was already 85 degrees.
It was a scorcher by the time we walked down onto the beach and found a nice spot to have the ceremony. We formed 2 lines, and Mel and Jacques walked between us while we hummed "Here Comes the Bride". It was fun. Then we all gathered around and watched as they exchanged vows. She made a beautiful bride...and you could tell she was as happy as could be to be marrying her prince on the beach. After a few group shots, we headed back to the beach house. A few minutes later, my blackberry screen went white and a message appeared that said "internal error, take in for service". AGHHHH! Despite being unconnected to the world, we had a great time sweating our asses off, sucking down margaritas and partying until dark. So grateful for the tweens who were there and doting on my boy all night. Ahhh, now that was awesome!
It was awful and not awful all at the same time. Would I go again? Probably not unless I have to. I'm not one to just sit on a beach, or play in water all day. I like to DO and I like to SEE. We really only had a day and half to ourselves, so we had no time to do or see anything but water and sand. That's not my thang. NOT AT ALL. I did enjoy people watching, but after a while I just start to find annoying things about people. If we would have had more time, I would have liked to check out Broadway at the Beach, the Aquarium and Amusement Park, Shopping, Medieval Times (loved it in NJ - but that was before Z came along), Put Put Golf, more shopping, etc. But there was no time for any of it. I am SO GLAD we were able to go to celebrate Mel's wedding. That's what the trip was all about. It wasn't about me. I was SO GLAD to see my boys face when he saw the ocean for the first time and the first time he stepped foot in it. He had a blast. That's also what this trip was about. It wasn't about me.
So...would I go back. Yeah, probably, if that's what my boy really wants to do (although...on the ride, he mentioned that he likes NYC way better...he was only 2 the last time we were there though...so I'm not sure there's much meaning to that). But we would have to pack some entertainment into the trip. Even only a day and a half was too much "nothing" for me.
I would definitely never go in the summer again. That's just INSANE!
