Wednesday morning dawned bright and pretty. Everyone was chomping to get to the beach. Carrie and Creston especially wanted to get in some beach time cause they had to go home today. Everybody scurried around and hauled all “the gear” to the beach. I decided to disconnect the truck from the boat and use it to haul my stuff (and my butt) down to the beach access. I used my handicap parking privileges to secure a spot near the beach access.
The beach on this particular day was nearly perfect. The wind was low, temp was in the middle 80’s, and the water was warm. I sat under my mother of all umbrellas and watched the world go by. Intermittently I got up and spent some time in the ocean. I really love to swim in the ocean when I get a chance. Miss Vickie spent her time searching the beach for anything collectable. Mostly she is currently interested in sharks teeth and sea glass. She has a big time and the patience of Job searching for both.
Sitting on a well populated beach during the 4th of July week caused me to wax analytical about all manner of things. The first thing that came to mind was how wonderful all these folks can still afford a vacation with their families even with the economic troubles we currently face. An then gazing at the ocean and remembering the MRAP vehicle we saw on a trailer at the Rest Stop on the way down got me thinking about all the kids who are over seas and at home keeping our way of life safe. My kids were here with me at the beach---I am a fortunate man. An then there is the thought that even with adversity—life is good if you take your fun where can find it.
Carrie and Creston packed up had lunch and headed up the road. They had to drive back to the DC area so Carrie could go back to work tomorrow. Vickie and I agreed with each other how fortunate we were to be happily retired and free to live life on a slightly different plane. We enjoyed the beach till mid afternoon, and then made a run to the local stores for some supplies.
This is a good time to mention a really cool service we found on this trip. Anyone who has ever been to Ocean Isle Beach in the distant past knows you used to have to travel all the way to Shallotte to go to the grocery store. Then years later they built a new Food Loin down the road toward Sunset Beach. That and the local small IGA were the only food supply sources available. Also anyone who has ever been to this or any beach for that matter knows how it is always a mob scene the first couple days at the grocery store as everyone tries to stock their larder for the week. While planning for this trip, I got an Email from Lowes Foods (whom I have a green points card with) telling me about a new service called Lowes Foods To Go, an on line shopping service. I sent a note to my daughter in law, Emily, about it thinking it might be useful for our beach trip because they had a store nearby. She embraced it quickly, and soon we were preparing an online shopping list for the beach.
It turned out that this service is beyond cool. I even put in my green points number so we could take advantage of the specials. How it works is that you prepare an online shopping list, complete with prices, sale prices, and quantities. You then pay a one-time charge of $5.95, which allows you unlimited on line shopping at that store for a week. You then transfer your shopping list to a shopping cart, and put in your credit card number, selecting a pick up date and time, and place the order. At your appointed time, you show up at the Lowes Foods, and pull into one of their special Lowes Foods To Go lanes, push a call button, and the person asks for your name. Then they politely say they’ll be right out with your order. They proceed to bring out everything you bought, load it in the car, and refuse to be tipped. (read they are not allowed) This is shopping like we always thought it might be in the future. We have used the service several times subsequently all week with similar favorable results. I can only imagine how useful this type of service would be for a busy mother who works and tries to keep up a family household. Emily said she is going to try to find a similar service near her home in Manassas. I can only imagine the young kids running around the store being shoppers for the to goers.
On the way back from the store, we picked up a nice big watermelon at a roadside stand. The kids fixed Chicken Marsala with Portobello mushrooms and risotto for dinner. My son used the couple quarts of hand made chicken stock from my previous days endeavors in the risotto. We topped it all with fresh cold watermelon for a great feed.
More later,
Wes
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