Not-So-SAHM: And You're Going to the Beach All Day: Brigantine, NJ

Wednesday, July 6, 2011

And You're Going to the Beach All Day: Brigantine, NJ

We hit the road full of optimism last Tuesday a.m. Mom started the countdown to Brigantine about 7 minutes in -- only 2 hours and 53 minutes left! By Baltimore it was clear that I was not going to take my morning nap. It was also clear that we were headed straight into the eye of the storm. It proceeded to torrentially downpour the remainder of the trip - all 4 hours and 53 minutes of it. During that time, Kane had a championship DVD session, I screamed my head off, Vegas cowered terrified in the backseat, we pulled off the road twice because we couldn't see anything, and eventually we ended up taking the SLOW backroads because 95 was such a hot mess (I mean I'm only 14 months old and even I know that you can't just stop your car in the middle of the expressway because it's raining ridiculously hard). BUT none of that mattered when we finally pulled in to Nona's house because following that yucky weather was four straight days of the most gorgeous beach weather we've had yet (and one rainy day, which hardly counts). Overly aggressive mosquitoes notwithstanding, we had a great week at the Shore (and daddy successfully Amtraked it there for the first time).

We spent most of our days on the beach -- snacking, building and knocking down sand castles and drip castles, continuing our education in sharing, jumping the waves, lining beach toys up, digging holes, chasing seagulls, watching for airplanes, dolphins and beach jeeps, and running the dog (OK, mom only ran poor V once). We hit up Brigantine's annual Family Fun Day and this year I was even big enough for my first pony ride. Kane was an old pro at the ponies and railroad, but got an extra special extended tour of the firetrucks from one of daddy's childhood friends. We played in Nona's yard in the mornings (while mommy and daddy got to "sleep in") and the few times it was a little too yucky to beach it -- bubbles, chalk, screamer balloons. You name it, we did it. We also got to go to lots of places around town, so watch for additional posts.

We are glad to be back home, but we'll be headed back for a late Summer trip (seeing that daddy's travel schedule is picking up, I think mommy prefers to brave a few hours by herself in the car with us than 24/7 for another whole week!). And next time we'll hit up the Marine Mammal Stranding Center, which we've always wanted to check out.

If you're ever in the Brig, make sure to stop by Mad Dog Morgan's for some grub -- they have great, reasonable breakfast and super cute packed-up beach lunches (they put kids lunches in a sand pail with a shovel). And they're family friends!