Last minute get away

About a week and a half ago, as I was slogging through work, a thought struck me: "Wouldn't it be great to be on a beach right now?" The thought was so overwhelming that I started to wonder.... "How can I get my pale, pale self to a beach?"

I looked up vacation rentals on VRBO. I found people who wanted to go (way, way easier than I thought!) and bam! Saturday morning in the wee hours before dawn we loaded up the car and headed to Padre. The Krutsingers and Edwards joined us and to our great surprise and delight, the Ploegers and the Schadalees found sitters for their little ones so we could all enjoy the beach.

The beach house was super close to a very empty beach. The weather was perfect. And we had a blast.

Well.... except for one thing. One day while all the girls were lying on the beach when all of a sudden Kelsey looks up and says, confusedly, "Did Rob take off his pants?" We look out across the water and sure enough, Rob's waist deep and flapping his shorts in the air. Danielle sounds perplexed as she utters "Yup. That's my husband. Naked." He dresses and comes back up to us with a face that's clearly trying to be calm but still looks panicked. "I have to go. I'll be at the house" and takes off.

Did you know there is such a thing as sea lice? They aren't really lice - they're jellyfish larvae. They look like large grains of sand and they get caught in your suit and start stinging. Not pleasant. Rob found 15-20 in his. After he ran off we all did some thorough inspections (yes, right there on the beach, to the amusement of the man camped next to us). Mandy found a good 8-10 while the rest of us just found one or two. The Ploegers couldn't be convinced to venture back in the water, but no way that was keeping Tim, Hans, Adam and the lobster known as Josiah on dry land. We really only noticed them one day and the other two were fine.

Between the yummy breakfasts and burgers, the cool breeze, the late night card games and of course three gorgeous days in the sun, it was a wonderful getaway. I think a new tradition has been born.