One out of three is, great?

So I was telling a friend about our recent trip.  We went to the beach, as you can see from my last post, right?

I was asked "how was it?"

My response?

"I hate the fighting in the car.  I haaaate staying in hotels.  But I love the beach."

My friend quickly pointed out that one out of three doesn't make a good vacation.  Valid point.  Unless one of those three is the beach that I looooooooove.

It's a long drive from my home to the beach.  We have to break it into two days because there is no way to do it in one.  Just no way at all. The last hour of the drive each day is painful enough.  I cannot imagine if we tried to push the entire drive into one day.  You might think I am punishing myself by having 2 "last hour" of driving days but I can't see one long horrific drive as better.

And we have to stay at hotels.  Hotels are just icky.  You don't really know that the place was cleaned up between visitors and does their level of cleaning match mine?  I am a tad ocd. . .and a trip heightens my anxiety level and makes my ocd-ness go off the charts.  I mean, for Pete's sake I actually sent a friend a text the first night at the condo "These sheets don't smell right.  How will I manage to sleep here?"  On the upside, the condo was great and definitely passed my "white sock" test.  If I can walk around all evening in white socks and they are still white at the end of the evening, well, your level of cleaning must match the level I strive for at home.

But the beach, that is what makes it all worth the hassle.  I love lounging on the beach.  I read.  I doze.  We take walks on the beach.  We search for shells.  We eat Twinkies.  We sit at the edge of the ocean and let the waters run up onto us.

This time around we stayed in a condo that was pretty awesome.  It was more expensive than the hotel we used to stay in but it gave room for our family to spread out instead of being right up on top of each other all the time.  We were able to walk to the beach which was nice.  The only downside to our location was that the beach was crowded.  So on the last full day we went to the state park beach that we had gone to on previous trips.  That beach was the first beach that each of our kids played on when they were little.  It's sentimental but I love that beach more than any other.

Pure heaven.

Since the state park beach charges admission, there are fewer people there.  Instead of people being 3-4 families "deep" from the ocean we could pick a spot on the beach and not have anyone directly next to us, in front of us or behind us.  We could hear the ocean.  It was gorgeous.

I told my husband that I know it was a pain to pack up the car to drive 3 miles to the beach but it was sooooo worth it.  Pure happiness on the beach.  Pretty much made all the other hassles worth it.

Good stuff.