Almost every summer, we spend a week vacationing with my sister and her family. This year, we returned to our favorite place in North Carolina and was lucky to have good weather with lots of sun and not too much heat. Unlike most people, I am a late bloomer when it comes to falling in love with the beach. I could take it or (mostly) leave it but this gradually changed thanks to a family who enjoys to surf and play in the sand.
For years, I looked forward to the “getting there” rather than the “being there” at our beach destination. We always made a few stops along the way to see something interesting, learn something new, while cutting the 10 hour drive into smaller trips. This year, we saw a movie at the Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center Imax Theater, spent the night in Chantilly, drove to Front Royal to meander along the Blue Ridge Mountains which spans the Shenandoah National Park, and stopped at Charlottesville for lunch.
We stayed at an ocean front house and was instantly relaxed on our first night as I listened to the rhythmic sound of the waves. I spent most days taking hour long run/walks along the beach (do you know that studies have shown that seeing a lot of blue space like a body of water leads to mental relaxation?), reading a book, journaling, going to the farmer’s market, and watching my husband and the kids surf, go water tubing, or wake boarding.
I intended for this trip to be a relaxing one and we accomplished just that. Now that summer is almost over (and for some of us the school season and all associated extra-curricular activities are about to commence), I do hope that yours has been exactly how you wanted it to be. Onward we go.
