Sunday, July 9, 2006

Vacation: The Numbers

So! JG and I are back from our vacation in Ocean City, NJ, more tan than when we left, and definitely rested. I am so glad to be home again, but it was great to have a real break from work and normal life.

Here’s the round-up of my beach experience:
  • People staying in our house, maximum: 20
  • People staying in our house, minimum: 15
  • Books read: 4
    - Sense and Sensibility (okay, I was already reading this, but I finished it), The Devil Wears Prada, Julie & Julia, and The Joy Luck Club
  • Games played: 7
    - Apples to Apples, Dutch Blitz, Sorry!, Outburst, Blackjack, Guesstures, and Dance Dance Revolution
  • Trips to the boardwalk taken: 2
  • Slices of Mack & Manco’s pizza eaten: 4 (in two sittings, don't worry)
  • Holes-in-one made in mini-golf: 6!!!
    - This is an all-time, never-before, unheard-of record for me. I can’t even remember the last time I played mini-golf, much less got a hole-in-one. Plus, our team won overall, in a field of four teams. I can't believe that I helped a team win at something! Involving a ball! I can never play again – quit while you’re ahead, right?
  • Shells collected along the shoreline: 67
  • Souvenirs bought: 8, I think
    - Salt-water taffy for my office, a big red bucket for collecting shells, a beach hat that made me look senior citizen-like, a beach chair with optional canopy that added to the senior citizen impression, pretty shells that I couldn’t find on the beach, postcards, an Ocean City t-shirt, and cotton candy (but I ate it – does it count as a souvenir?)
  • Occasions actually spent in the ocean: 1
  • Sunrises watched: 0
    - Okay, we all knew how unrealistic that one was, especially since one of my major objectives for this week was to wake up sans alarm clock everyday.
  • Pictures taken on our camera: 293
  • Pictures taken of me: 17

All in all, I’m glad I went, and I am definitely rested up. I was able to try and experience a lot of new things, some of which I wouldn’t mind doing again (rocking the house in mini-golf) and others that I will do my best to never to repeat (going into ocean water that is higher than my knees). Best of all, this experience was a new window into JG’s childhood, and I really enjoyed watching him reclaim a part of it in an environment where I’d never seen him. My favorite pictures are of him running full-force into the ocean, washing up on the shore after bodysurfing, and going all-out in a game of four-square. Maybe that’s why I stayed behind the camera so much; I just liked observing. Who knows – maybe next time, there will be a lot more pictures of me. For now, I’m content to archive my hundreds of photos into albums, figure out which ones make the cut for framing, and recall the salty smell of my first beach vacation.

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