Last weekend marked my second trip to the Delware shore this summer. The first was to Rehoboth as a nanny for a week. This time it was a lazy weekend with my darling friend Brian to his parents' house on Bethany Beach!
Bethany-and Rehoboth to an extent- are weird beach communities. All the beaches I knew growing up were jam-packed with tacky little houses, and no matter where you rent your house, you can walk to the beach. Not so in Delaware. A lot of the beach belongs to private gated communities, and the public beaches are parks that you have to reach by car. There are no blocks of little sandy houses decorated in hand-me-down furniture. Everything is a large house with a grassy yard and there are pools and cul-de-sacs. Developments of McMansions abound and there aren't any raging bars or tatoo parlors or arcades. It's all older people in their retirement years on the beach- hence the nickname "slower lower Delware."
Brian's parents were kind hosts and his best girl friend from high school, Dana, joined us too. I wish I could tell you we partied all night long, but the weekend was more for relaxing on the screen porch with a bottle of wine, sleeping in, and laying on the beach. We were blessed with perfect weather and the usual hordes of labor day tourists stayed home, fearing Hurricane Earl. Lucky for us, Earl missed the coast all-together, and left Delware with nothing to show except ENORMOUS waves. The surfers were thrilled, but I wasn't so excited. The rip was frightening, even just a few feet in, and I don't like the feeling of struggling against an ocean current. I didn't do much more than splash around in the break and work on my tan.
I used the relaxation of the sun to pump up for the following week at school. The honeymoon period is over here and the kids are starting to pull out their usual tricks. Unfortunately there have been a ton of fights so far this year and something is amiss...the kids are really pushing the administration and teachers hard. Cross your fingers that everyone settles in and September sails out smoothly!
Peace and Love.
