Day 3 or 4 or 5?

Saturday evening drifted by vacation-style: a family game of hearts and Trivial Pursuit and glasses of wine and beers on the deck.  Sunday, James was up at 5:30am, peering at me from over the lip of his pack n’ play and giggling my name.  I got him up and out of the house so everyone else could sleep, and we walked the mile+ downtown to wait in line for the bakery to open up so I could get some coffee.  On the way back to the house, we stopped and played for a while at a neighborhood park.  By 8:00am, it was already 83 degrees.

I managed to get a nap in late morning, and the afternoon was a strictly beach time affair for all.  I smuggled down to the beach a few bottles of Yuengling (Tom bought it; I normally abstain because of the Yuengling family’s arch-neoliberal views regarding what laborers do and don’t (mostly don’t) deserve, but the beer was bought, so who I am to blow against the wind?) and quaffed them with nary a hassle from the local beach constabulary.  I also body surfed for a bit, and then took up a session of frisbee with Jake, during which I seriously messed up my throwing shoulder.  I recognize that my athletic skills have eroded as I’ve gotten older, but apparently I’ve physiologically degenerated to a point where I can’t even perform the rudimentary movements of play. 

James loves the beach now, which is a marked difference in his attitude since even Cocoa Beach this spring.  He spent the better part of the afternoon playing in the hole in the sand I dug, springing up suddenly and running into the surf, getting scared of the waves, and running back to the hole.  There has been some sand eating, but not a ton.  Erica spent what part of the afternoon that was not devoted to James care asleep, mouth agape, in her beach chair.  James thought it was funny to tell everyone “Mommy ni-night”.

This morning Erica did the good turn, and took our little early riser out for a long walk.  I slept in until 8 (unheard of, people) and enjoyed coffee and a bowl of Kix(!) while watching joggers on the beach.  Tom, Cher, and Aunt Mary Kay then joined the three of us on a trip to the local free zoo, which was pretty good by free zoo standards.  The Cape May County Zoo and Park is built in a patch of woods just on the mainland, and consists mostly of a series of raised wooden walkways that pass through cordoned off sections of the forest, under which its animals roam freely.  Pretty efficient design.  James really enjoyed getting carried about by his Papa, but started to get a bit squirrely toward the end, and prompted our early exit.  Here are some pics from the pre-meltdown portion of the trip.

  

Goat

The first of these types of pics for the Gholson clan/probably not the last

Kind of a safari vibe to this picture; probably the hat and peasoup green shirt

The evening was again mostly just hang out time on the deck, chatting and listening to waves.  We did attempt to get some good family shots while the sun was going down, with mixed results--the best of which are below.