Getaway

Ever have one of those weekends where you get a lot done and manage to have some fun? This past weekend was like that for us.

My wife and I took Friday off to address some mundane household stuff that needed attention (banking issues, home internet on the fritz, blah, blah blah), but only after first enjoying a nice breakfast out. That was the breakfast I told you about in the previous post. After successfully addressing everything, we enjoyed a nice dinner out, too. Then we came home and watched an interesting little Italian-language film called Golden Door on DVD (review to shortly follow). All in all, a good day.

On Saturday, we decided to do a quick overnight getaway to the seashore, as we've been meaning to take advantage of the rock bottom off-season hotel rates at some of the nearby shore points. We ended up getting a nice room with a great waterfront view in Somer's Point, New Jersey. The normally $200-plus per night room was only $80.00 this time of year. Dinner at a nice seafood restaurant next door to the hotel followed, with the evening concluding with a late-night walk on the famous boardwalk in nearby Ocean City, NJ (a short car ride away from Somer's Point). Well, the evening concluded back at the hotel, but I won't write anymore about that.

Sunday featured a nice continental breakfast at the hotel (included!) and another walk on the Ocean City boardwalk, this time under the sun and with many of the boardwalk stores actually open. Following pizza on the boardwalk, we headed back home to the Philadelphia area to catch the 3:15 p.m. showing of The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest, which was my wife's idea. We had meant to catch the movie on Friday evening, but the errands and chores kind of took over that day, leaving room only for dinner. So it was great to be able to see the movie, after all (review soon to follow).

Sunday concluded with a nice little dinner at the bar at our local Carrabba's Italian Grill, followed by (alas, everything can't be fun) a night time trip to the supermarket to lay in some food for the coming week. But if we didn't get to the store then, we'd have to squeeze it in tonight, which would have been worse. Better to get it out of the way.

So, several productive things got done and several kinds of fun was had this past weekend. I guess, if I scrutinize things, there were a few "glass half empty" aspects of the weekend, (getting the computer fixed cost a pretty penny, the heater in the hotel room was fairly noisy, my wife didn't like the movie on Sunday as much as I did, blah, blah, blah), but we try to be "glass half full" kind of people. Also, breaking the routine is always a good thing. Don't you agree?

Pictured is the Ocean City, NJ boardwalk on the morning of November 7 (yesterday), a choppy Atlantic Ocean off to the left. For those of you reading this post on your computer, click the photo to enjoy a larger view. To my friends curled up with your Kindles as you read this: trust me, it was a wonderfully brisk, beautiful day.