Time At "The Shore" with the Jersey Girls

In the middle of my Grandma journeys I take time out to gather with three of my girl friends from high school in New Jersey.  In the past we have gathered in Hawaii on the Big Island where we are hosted by Monene Bradley (Dick too :)).  We love going to Hawaii, but it was time to give Monene a break from hosting.  In Hawaii we dubbed ourselves the Haualalai Hotties and the Kukio Kuties depending on which property we used on any given day.  The house is in Haualalai, but we also were able to take advantage of the amenities at Kukio next door.  On this trip we will be known as The Jersey Girls.

Mary Jeanne's daughter Wendy owns a house on Long Beach Island, New Jersey and she graciously offered to have us use it.  Mary Jeanne is the official hostess and puts together our trip Down The Shore.  Irene chooses to by pass the island on her trek up the eastern seaboard so all is well and we are set to arrive on September 11.  Oh, for those of you who don't know, going "down the shore" is what everyone in New Jersey calls "going to the beach".  This seems to be unique to New Jersey.

The sun is shining when we arrive in the early afternoon.  The house has 5 bedrooms and two baths with an extra shower in the outside bath house.  It is lovely with an upstairs outside deck, an outside deck in the back and a front sitting area.  Inside boasts a living room, dining room, kitchen and reading room which is a second living room.  It is decorated in a comfortable but elegant beach style.

We are drawn to see the beach which is less than a block away so we head out down the street and onto a wooden walkway that leads to the beach.  The ocean is still showing activity from the recent storms and the waves are crashing on the shore.  Unfolding our beach chairs and stretching out on the beach we begin to bask in the sun and listen to the waves chattering away amongst ourselves just enjoying being together again.

For four of the five nights we each take turns cooking dinner.  Each night brings a delicious and different repast.  The fifth night we go out to an Italian restaurant that Wendy recommends. All in all with the snacks, peanut butter pie( to DIE for), cookies, cheeses, olives and many other goodies I ate WAY too much.

Each morning we take a walk around the neighborhoods and on the beach.  One morning we have yoga instructions at the house that Mary Jeanne arranges.  Alice teaches us line dancing one evening, and I do a guided imagery meditation one afternoon.  We visit the Barnegat  Lighthouse and climb the 217 steps up to the top.  The view is spectacular looking out over the ocean and the land surrounding the lighthouse.  What goes up must come down - 217 steps down.

We beach it everyday.  One day as we are relaxing we hear a clack, clack,clack down where the waves are breaking on the shore.  It is caused by thousands of shells rolling up with the waves and then being sucked out again.  They were not there the day before.  We wander down to investigate and find loads of different shells.  The next day they are gone again!!!

We all agree that this trip was wonderfully relaxing and fun.

Who Needs Botox???