What'd YOU do this weekend??

I drove to the beach. And yes I got to the beach and had a good deal of fun there... but I DROVE to the beach... As in, I got in the car at 8:20 AM and got to the beach at 3:00 PM (when it should only take one 3 hours to get there). Sometimes-- and I've had this experience before-- I feel like I get caught in this vortex of energy that is Baltimore and I CAN'T get out...! I just c a n ' t s e e m t o g et oooooouuuuuuttttt!!! It just takes so much energy to GET out of the city...
I got up at 6:30 to get myself together... Like I said, we left the house at 8:20 to take Kara to the china town bus for her own weekend adventures in NYC, which "is just off 95," won't take long. Yeah, just off 95... IN FREAKING DUNDALK- South EEEEEAST Baltimore mind you... Then I had to get back on the belt way and go all the way around and up to Owings Mills- way north WESSSSSST of the city to pick up a very specific 25 lb. bag of "silverado" grout for our visiting artist who is finishing up a project... bring it back down to Clayworks in North Baltimore... THEN stop at whole foods to pick up snacks and what not for the day. 10:00 am... Back down to smack-in-the-middle-Baltimore to pick up Megan and then down through the city once again, (hitting every red light there was), to get on 95, to 695 to 97 and head down to Annapolis and cross the Bay Bridge... 11:00 am. Ahhhh, finally... we made it... the open road....! Or... not so... I think everybody in the entire mid-atlantic region of this country was on their way to the freaking beach as well... Traffic... like I've NEVER seen it before...

The traffic stretched out for miles in front of us...

...and behind us... is this ridiculous or WHAT??? Can you imagine- on a Saturday morning on the way to the BEACH??

Megan had a long, lovely nap...

and I... I was just so happy with the state of affairs...!


But actually, I'm quite talented... I can do a LOT of things while driving.... talk on the phone, txt friends, eat a sandwich, operate my ipod, take photos, read maps, sing at the top of my lungs, have conversations with the driver next to me... so really, I had such an enjoyable time.

FINALLY we rolled in to Henlopen State park and onward to Herring Point just after 3:00 pm. The sun was out, it was warm and breezy, and the angst of the day smashed into the sand with the pounding surf...

The waves were MASSIVE!



Break dancing practice on the beach...



After a stop at the DQ, the DC gang (who'd made it there quite a bit earlier on account of NOT having to deal with the Baltimore vortex) headed back... Megan and I found a calmer beach and went for a long walk in the setting sun.

A pirate ship out in the distance...



Driving back through the farmland of the eastern shore at the end of of a long day in the sun is intensely satisfying. The sun goes down and the sky goes through its palette of pinks and yellows settling into deep blues and eventually night... the heat of the day radiates off of your skin, while coolness blows in the windows through your sandy, salty hair, the irrigation systems silently spray fields and the crickets pull our their fiddles and start to dance... You feel alive.

We stopped at a farmers stand and picked up fresh tomatoes, corn and a watermelon the size of texas... all of which will make the most fantastic dinner tonight. (With fresh basil from our own little garden...)

Was it worth it? Totally. Would I sit in the car for seven hours again for three hours of beach time? In a heart beat... Maybe work on a different driving strategy, but hey? What's the fun without a good story to tell?

Ahhhh.... life.