summer's end.

labor day weekend - there is only one thing to do in my mind...hit the beach. it's your last official chance to squeeze the final sunshine drop out of summer and not lift a pinkie. because once the holiday has come and gone, it's time for serious business. school starts and traffic comes back with avengeance (ugh - 50 mins to go 2 miles!), no more casual fridays from home (lunchtime = pooltime), and the happy colors of the season are packed away until may (buh-bye lilyp). yes, with september comes some serious changes.

so this year steve and i did it up right in sandbridge with our gdc community group. just south of touristy virginia beach, this spot provided the perfect backdrop to relax into fall - with good friends, great times and even better weather. thank goodness no tropical storm ernesto rained our parade this year! renting out a perfect beach house, called "paradise found", the 12 of us crammed in for some high-end weekend fun.

the beach itself was fantastic - even in spite of the unsightly pipeline dividing the beach, busy drudging up the the ocean floor. apparently sandbridge has one of highest erosion rates highest in virginia! sandwiched between the atlantic ocean and back bay national wildlife refuge, this place is definitely a sand-bridge. whew. often called the "outer banks of virginia" we were all a little skeptical in the title, but it was close enough for us.

cozied up on the fine grain sand, with the sound of the surf and the cool breeze blowing off the ocean shore, i was happy as a clam. slathered up in some spf 4, i scored myself a gorgeous golden tan (me, tan, minus the burns? finally yes) as i sped through the junior-high-required-reading-list classic - catcher in the rye. quite controversial, but it was time i finally read it - being my kid brother's favorite book, he generously lent me his copy. between chapters, i joined the gang in playing bocce ball and evan's custom-made UT longhorns/WF demon deacs cornhole game. life is good.

steve on the other hand, skipped the sunscreen and coated himself in oil, frying himself in the sun (yes, even he can burn) while playing soccer and football in the sand. however, the real disappointing part of the weekend was when stephen finally convinced me to get into the water (those waves were huuuuge!!!), and i lost my 3 week old burberry sunglasses to the sea forever. so so sad - shed a tear for me :(

but all sins were forgiven as we ended sunday evening with some yummy grilling and two very eventful rounds of telephone pictionary, consisting of pregnant men, steve raving (or cross-dressing?) in germany and varying interpretations of the word "morning glories". man, we're just hilarious, aren't we? by monday morning, reality began to sink in as folks prepared for the long trek back to dc. we stayed through the afternoon, soaking up the bright cheery surroundings and planned our "escape route" back home...

we had avoided most of the traffic coming down by leaving at 830pm on friday, spending the night at the in-laws since they were on the way. it was sarah's last night home as she packed up and braved her newest adventure. she started her child life specialist internship today at johns hopkins university hospital - one of the top programs in her field! we are so proud of her. since we were not able to help out with the big move, we wanted to at least see her off. and that we did, making the last hour of our final leg of the trip saturday morning after we said our good-byes and good-lucks.

on monday, we followed a similar plan, stopping in hampton to shower off (no more sand!), visit grandmuzzie and grab some grub, before making the long hike home. instead of venturing up I-95, we took the back roads of route 17 along the rappahannock river and made exceptional time. all in all, we ran into minimal traffic the whole weekend - what a feat - and averaged out to about 4.5 hours each way. the trip couldn't have been better, nor us luckier.

we finally arrived home by 9pm last night and tried to prepare ourselves for the switching of gears that the tuesday after labor day always brings... eh, but september isn't so bad afterall. the crisp winds of change bring a promise of a new day to conquer, a new leaf to turn, a new season to embrace. so as we say farewell to summer, we greet fall with refreshing expectation.