Friday, July 31, 2015

Reach the Beach 2015

It's Friday afternoon and Joe and I are sitting at the bar at 45 Central Wine Bar in Seaside, FL.  It's anew place I discovered on one of our forays to Seaside earlier in the week.  It opened 3 months ago and it seems the masses of tourists haven't discovered it yet, so it's quiet.  That makes it the perfect place for Joe to sleep while I write.

We leave for home tomorrow morning, so I'm a little melancholy this afternoon.  As always, our week in Santa Rosa Beach went by far too quickly.  I was thinking yesterday, it's so rare that Jude and I get a full week with the boys all to ourselves.  No school, no work, no sports and no real distractions.  That's part of what makes our annual vacation here so special, I think.  It occurs to me we'll get, if we're lucky, 18 weeks like this with our boys.  Actually, less than that, because soon enough J.P. will want to bring a friend or he and Joe will want to do their own thing while we're on vacation.  It boils down to one week year with my boys, while they're still relatively young, then they're off to college and it's over.  Damn, now I'm really feeling melancholy.

It's great, as J.P. and Joe are getting old enough to play together and enjoy each other's company.  It's really cool to watch them fooling around, making each other laugh, as only brothers can do.  We're blessed to have the boys we have, no doubt about it.

As always, memories from the week, in no particular order -


  • By far, our best long car trip with the boys on the ride down (let's hope our luck holds on the way home tomorrow).  2 stops, only for restroom breaks (no McDonald's play areas!) and we made it in about 8 hours, with some traffic.  J.P. didn't get sick until we were about 2 miles from the beach house.  We were THIS close to a vomit-free trip.  
  • Joe loved the beach, which was a big, big change from years past.  He loved everything about it  the sand, the waves and the ocean.  J.P., too, was all about the waves and the ocean.  It was great to watch J.P. swim nearby, but not to have to be with him every minute.  He's getting more and more independent.
  • Playing football with J.P. in the ocean, especially when we took turns pretending to be Blaine Bishop (former Titans' star) on a safety blitz or Javon Kearse sacking the quarterback off the edge.  When I tackled J.P. in the surf and stripped the football, he laughed and laughed.  It was a beautiful thing.  
  • Joe, baseball crazy as ever, playing a form of "beach baseball" with Jude for hours every day.  He would "hit" the ball with a modified, toy lacrosse stick, then "run" the bases on the beach while Jude chased him.  Then, Joe would "pitch" and Jude would hit.  Over and over again, with Joe squealing and laughing the entire time.
  • Lots of fun in the mornings in the pool with J.P. and Joe.  Again, Joe played a form of "pool baseball" with Jude while J.P. and I roughhoused with each other.  
  • An aborted dinner at the abominable Goatfeathers restaurant, which led to a top 10 all-time family meal at La Playa.  J.P. tried (and liked) the fish dish off the children's menu, which was huge for him!  He also tried (and liked) the grouper I was eating.  A couple of nights later, when we decided to get takeout from Local Catch, he requested a fish dish.  Amazing.
  • Lots and lots of game playing.  Sorry, Battleship (I'm still the champion - the "admiral"), Guess Who (I defeated J.P. 8 games to 7 and he was pissed), UNO and Boggle.  When J.P. won a game - any game - he got Jude's cell phone and pretended to call the newspaper to announce his victory.  Monkey see, monkey do, as Joe started doing the same thing even though he wasn't exactly winning any games.
  • I finished a truly amazing book - Long Man - by Amy Greene.  Phenomenal, probably the best novel I'll read in 2015.
  • 21 + total miles of morning runs on the Longleaf Pine Trail near our beach house in Old Florida Village.  I remember when I could (and did) do 20 mile weeks in my sleep.  Now, it's an accomplishment to be celebrated.  Strangely, I didn't run any of my other routes, sticking to the trail I discovered a couple of years ago.  
  • A cameo appearance by Carl P. Spining, one of my oldest friends and a law school classmate, and an afternoon of beer drinking with him at the Great Southern Cafe in Seaside, FL, while Joe napped beside me.  An unexpected treat, for sure.
  • Ama Vida Coffee.  Sadly, Grayt Coffee House is no more, I discovered, but Ama Vida filled in nicely.
  • Watching "Deadliest Catch" with J.P.  Need I say more?
  • Learning about the death of my friend, Joanna Stanfield.  My former paralegal, Suzanne, texted me Wednesday morning and my heart sank as I read the text.  The best paralegal I have ever known, Joanna found her voice after she was diagnosed with cancer 5 days after the birth of her daughter, Maggie, almost 4 years ago.  She touched and inspired so many with her blog, "It's Cancer, Baby," and the courageous way she fought for every day she could spend with Maggie.  The world is a lesser place without her.
  • Joe's earsplitting scream, whenever he was unhappy with something J.P. and I were doing. 
  • Jed.  Seeing our longtime friend, Jed, whose family owns Blue Mountain Beach Creamery, our favorite ice cream store in the world.  We've known Jed for 5 + years, since he opened the store.  Every year when we come down, the business has grown and grown.  This year, after dinner, we stopped by one night and the line stretched around the building and down the street toward Blue Mountain Beach.  We knocked on the window and asked for Jed.  When he saw us, he smiled widely and treated us like VIP's by getting our ice cream and refusing to allow us to pay for it.  Fortunately, we got to spend some quiet time with him yesterday afternoon, when it wasn't too busy.  J.P. adores Jed, so getting the one-on-one time with him was special for J.P.
  • And, right now, in what is maybe the highlight of my week, Joe is waking up in the City Elite stroller, right next to me.  We've shared so many afternoons with him in that stroller and before him, I shared them with J.P.  Joe is looking up at me and smiling, innocently, as he tucks his knees up to stay warm.  God, those eyes and that smile.  My heart is full and I don't want this moment to end.  Ever. 


Wednesday, July 29, 2015

Surfer Boy


A boy and his board.

Sunday, July 26, 2015

Good To Go

We arrived in Santa Rosa Beach, Fl, early yesterday evening to begin our annual end of summer week long vacation at the beach.  We're staying in Old Florida Village, as we have in years past.  This time, we're staying in "Good to Go" a house near the back of the development but still just a walk away from the swimming pool.

Last night, unwinding, I stayed up a little too late watching the beginning of the final season of "Sons of Anarchy" and reading (and drinking a "Tiny Bomb" or two - a pilsner craft brewed at Wiseacre in Memphis).  The boys had no pity and woke up about 6 a.m.  Once they woke up, we were up.  I went for a 4 mile punishment trail run while Jude and the boys went to the beach.  When I finished my run, the boys had breakfast then we went to the pool.

This afternoon, Joe and I drove over to Seaside.  While he napped in the City Elite next to be at the Great Southern Cafe, I sat at the bar and had a drink.  I rolled him over to Amavida for a cup of coffee (me) and sippy cup of mile (Joe) after he woke up.  He and I met Jude and J.P. at the beach for some late afternoon ocean time.

Then, we ate dinner (Local Catch) and drove down to Blue Mountain Beach Creamery to see our friend, Jed.  We were astonished to see the line for ice cream stretched out into the street.  We walked around the pick-up window and motioned for Jed.  His eyes lit up when he saw us (and especially J.P.).  One of the great things about coming to the same place for vacation every year is getting to know some of the locals.  Jed hooked us up with free ice cream, which was a really nice thing for him to do.  We felt like V.I.P's.

On day 1 of our vacation this year, I already can see we've turned a corner with the boys.  J.P. and Joe love the beach and the ocean.  Unlike last year and years past (when J.P. was much younger), there's was no fussing today about getting in the ocean.  To the contrary, Joe couldn't wait to play in the waves.  J.P. was all over the place - catching fish with a net, body surfing and riding a boogie board.  It's cool, as for the first time at the beach, he's a little self-sufficient.  We watch him, but we don't have to be right beside him in the ocean all the time.  Granted,  he's staying near at the shore at our direction, but still it's progress.

For perhaps the first time, today on the beach I could see the future a little bit.  One day, not too terribly far away, the boys will be off on their own playing with friends when we're at the beach.  Jude and I will just sit in our beach chair and smile, remembering trips like this (and those in the past) when all the boys wanted to do was hang out with us.

Sigh.




Thursday, July 23, 2015

The Hardy Boys and Morning Runs

Two of the greatest pleasures of my life are reading and running.  If I do nothing else, I want to encourage J.P. and Joe to develop a lifelong love of reading and running, or some other physical activity.

Recently, I went to my mom's house and after digging around her attic, retrieved several "Hardy Boys" books.  Jude and I have been struggling a bit to find age appropriate books to read to J.P. and I thought he might enjoy reading, or me reading to him, one of the Hardy Boys books.

As a boy, I devoured the The Hardy Boys mysteries.  Frank and Joe Hardy were two of the heroes of my youth.  Books like those were what helped me develop my love of reading.

Running, well, I've written many times about how important running is to me.  Lately, I've been getting up early - 5:20 a.m. - and heading out for morning runs in the new 'hood.  This is huge for me, because I've always been a late night person, as a result of which I haven't been much of a morning person.  For the last few years, I've run mostly at night, after the boys are in bed.  By time I unwind after my run, read and get to bed, it would often be after midnight.

This morning, I hit the streets at 5:30 a.m.  I violated my longstanding rule of not starting a run when it's raining, because I really wanted to get a run in and it was only drizzling.  Of course, as soon as I headed down Belmont Blvd., it started pouring rain and I ran the rest of the 3 miles in a hard rain.  It's been so hot, really, that it was kind of nice.

Now, the good part.  I got home, the front door opened and out popped J.P.  "Can we go for a run, Dad? he asked.  I smiled and replied, "sure."  So, we ran stretched, ran down Belmont Blvd., and finished at Belmont U.  We got water and Gatorade from the Circle K, then walked home together, talking all the way.  And that's the best part, the walking and talking.

After breakfast, we laid in bed and finished reading "The Hooded Hawk Mystery," the first Hardy Boys' book we've read together.  Awesome.

A perfect morning for me.