a vacation break with chanda

chanda and i joined my sister and her family for a few days at the beach. we had wonderful weather and swam so much and ate the first night at the clam bar at the dock, sharing a fried fisherman's platter and clam chowder. we stayed until this afternoon, and then drove home in the hot weather . . and it was very hot because our car's air conditioning was not working.

chanda and pluto slept over monday night so we could leave early tuesday morning. i packed hard boiled eggs and banana bread which we had with green tea (me) and coffee (chanda). 

our tuesday afternoon was spent at the bay beach.

game time . .

ladder toss . .

as the day drew towards evening, i was reminiscing about how my parents would come down at that time of day to meet the girls and i. once i had fallen asleep in the dunes and woke to poke my head up and see them seated in their lawn chairs, talking to morgana with chanda prancing about while korrina was still wandering beside the jetty, collecting sea shells and stones.

we went home to rinse off before heading out to the clam bar for dinner.

pluto kept an eye on things . . 

kathy, chanda and i wandered off to look in a few of the shops but hurried to the water when jason texted us to come quick and catch the sunset.

this evening before going to sleep we looked at the stars and with the help of h. a. rey's star gazing book we found vega, shining bright overhead in the constellation lyra the lyre (part of the summer triangle (once called the navigator's triangle) made up of three bright stars with vega the northern most point and deneb in the northeast and altair in the southwest - all three from different constellations. lyra is the lyre of orpheus, son of the sun god apollo (or oeagrus, king of thrace) and the muse calliope, who played so beautifully that he soothed wild beasts. after he died, his lyre floated down the river hebrus to the sea, continuing to play music and so eventually came to the muses who placed it in the sky. vega's name comes from the arabic word "waqi," meaning falling or swooping, a reference to a time when the star was seen as a flying eagle or vulture and honors the importance of astronomy in islam, for which it helped followers to mark the time of prayers, festivals and pilgrimages. we also saw anteris in the constellation scorpius in the midst of the milky way, a bit towards the southwestern sky. we also located the big dipper in the northwestern sky and polaris just northeast of it.

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wednesday morning found us at ditch . . 

it was a rough sea that day . .

my sister was telling me a story of when she and warren were walking along the shore at jones beach one summer (a long time ago - pre-children) and a strong wave came in and knocked her down and washed over her. she staggered up and warren had just kept walking! he hadn't noticed! she could have been washed out to sea and he would have just kept walking  . .  !

it was a good day for surfing, and a good day for boogie boarding. my sister is my boogie boarding partner, and we had a fun time getting tossed about by ditch's erratic waves.

 

we stopped at the library on the way back to the house for lunch as jason and chanda hadn't seen the renovations yet.

 

we checked out quite a few items considering we were leaving the next day (one was a movie for that evening - the secret life of walter mitty which chanda and i had seen awhile ago, but my sister hadn't. i was amazed that she, warren and jason hadn't seen it yet, as they're the ones always recommending things to me.)

lunch on the deck . .

hot dogs and delicious salads from the local deli.

and then the second beach of the day  . . swimming at the bay. i love being at the shore with my sister and brother-in-law as they can spend a long time there. greg doesn't like swimming in the cold water (having grown up in florida, he's used to bathtub water), but the rest of us prefer it. (greg does enjoy sitting on the beach and reading his books, however.)

back at the house . . 

making guacamole to have with corn chips . . 

pizza and salad this evening . . 

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thursday morning:

swimming at the "ischia" beach (because it reminded chanda and i of a beach she visited in ischia last  year):

 

 

 

(photos by chanda)

 

 and then chanda and i had that long, hot drive back to the city. we stopped for coffee and a muffin at hampton coffee in water mill and drove through an unusually heavy sun shower (greg had the same storm downtown during his special luncheon with work colleagues) and quite a lot of traffic to brooklyn where we took conduit avenue to her neighborhood.

 

we were so happy to find a parking spot across from her building.

it was so hot that i was a little worried about pluto, but he was fine, though i'm sure he was happy to finally be in a cool air conditioned room.

pluto's new pal and roommate, melvin.

chanda brought back a stool on which she eventually plans to place a plant, and a new book about taking care of plants for one's apartment (found in town at a local shop).

her place is looking very cozy . . 

greg met me there and we drove home together. it felt good to be back in the city.