Wow! Day 38! Who leaves home for this long?? Crazy. In a way I am 100% ready to be home. I’m ready to cook, weed the yard, catch up on some painting at home. And way more importantly I’m soooo ready to see my friends. I miss my neighbors and other friends so much it almost hurts. And then my parents. I so miss my almost-monthly nights at Cooper’s Hawk with my mom and the cooks out weather tend to have in the summer. I think both my mom and I will be happier just being closer to one another. Soon, mom, I promise.
So back to today. A few noteworthy things happened.
1. Ellie lost a tooth! In the ocean. We were all riding the waves about 20 yards out when I reminded her than she had mentioned wanting to lose it at the ocean. She directed Zak to hold her tight and me to yank. As soon as my slippery fingers got a grip it slid right out of her gums. In every way, this is “Ellie.” The tooth fairy will make a stop at a Kimpton tonight. Crazy.
2. Today is National Ice Cream Day. If you are looking for “Weird Holiday Art,” you must check out Sam Lynn Studio. When she was a tiny toddler, Samantha lived on my block and her parents allowed me
my first babysitting jobs. We recently reconnected via Facebook and she has grown into a lovely, talented artist. All her work is amazing, but her daily weird holiday paintings are so much fun. Each night I show the girls the painting and we celebrate if applicable. Please check her out!! Anyway, today was National Ice Cream Day and uber had a ridiculous idea. Free ice cream from Uber Eats, delivered anywhere for no cost! Zak had four Mangnum Caramel ice cream bars delivered. The driver was thrilled to drop them off for us. His trunk was full of ice cream bars and dry ice and his backseat was full of gift bags and Havaiana flip flops. After a whole slew of pics for social media, Zak returned to the beach with ice cream. It was awesome! We did try to get some for the staff here at the Tideline, but there was a limit of four.
3. Pool handstand competition. Bad idea. But my idea. The girls have gotten really good at gymnastics tricks in the pools. Like so crazy good. And Zak’s years of swimming left some pool tricks in his system. And, hell, I remember doing flips in Wing Pool when I was a kid. And for some unknown reason I thought it would be like riding a bike, never losing the skill. Wrong! I challenged the rest of the family to a handstand competition, us each judging each other on a 1 to 3 scale. Zak and the girls each averaged between 7 and 9 as a total score each round. I always, ALWAYS received a total of 3. Just one point from each judge. The lowest possible. And I kept getting pool water up my nose and in my ears. And a lost one of my gold hoop earrings. (Zak went back to the pool later and found it.)
4. Brandon’s for dinner. We have a pact to always eat local and fresh. When I was in Europe for 5 weeks in college, we spent 2 weeks in a small town in the Alps. We went to the local, small grocery store every day to get sandwiches from the deli. Throughout the weeks we got to know the deli guy and he felt like family by the end of the week. That is how I like to travel. Stay enough time in each location to get to know the cuisine and people of that very specific location. Well, we have nearly failed miserably here. Each night we’ve been at Tideline, we’ve eaten dinner and breakfast and Brandon’s. Turns out the food, like all the food at Kimptons, is absolutely out of this world. So we’re heading back there tonight. Not too local-ly, but damn good.
Pics tomorrow…I promise, mom!
