The Interstate Love Song Edition

Last night I hit rock bottom. In the vernacular of recovery, hitting rock bottom is the point at which you turn toward getting better. The nadir I reached last night had nothing to do with substances but everything to do with stress and exhaustion. Hours later in the clear light of day (or as clear as I can manage it) I think the recipe of the meltdown I had last night was chockablock with stirred feelings of people I had just left behind, the tension of our uncertain financial future, and the realization that I'm just not as young as I used to be- certainly not young enough to make that long, long drive on very little sleep. Now that I went through it though I know that the friends back in the States will always be connected to me no matter what distance, I know that the fear of what we will do if Shell doesn't get another project soon is something that I certainly don't have to swallow and abide silently because she's strong too, and I also know that in the future we won't make that long trip in one stretch, and I certainly will catch up on my sleep soon. So while I'm not exactly sure that I'm in a great frame of mind today, I do have lots to share about our trip to the Beach. In fact there's so much (and so many pictures too) that I'll be breaking this TGIF up into several posts- so look for several more related TGIFs coming in the next few days... Before I begin our little travel recap though I have to point to two significant milestones today- Ginny Grace is 6 months old today, and today is also the 5th anniversary of the day Shell and I met in Vegas. I love you so much Baboo. Now onto our trip. We left late last Tuesday night, managing to get a jump start and allow a bulk of the drive to coincide with Gracie's sleep. Somehow we got everything into the car (including my clubs) and set off for the long drive. GG was snuggled in the back with Shell and Willow. She seemed to enjoy the first part of the trip... Shell was her usual trooper self, managing to keep me together and the family from falling apart... Dixie got to ride shot-gun and spent most of the time with her head on my shoulder staring into the backseat... We stopped for breakfast in D.C. and everyone had a big stretch...Ginny Grace was still in a decent mood until we hit her namesake state...then the cranky started...here she was in a more reflective moment before the tears... We made it to my parents' house where we were spending our first night and of course it had to be the first stop anyway since the grandparents always have 'dibs' on the baby...I didn't think my Mom was going to let us get GG back... Then since we were having to leave the dogs with them for the week we wanted to take the puppies to the beach for the afternoon. It was really windy but Willow (and Gracie) seemed to enjoy their first taste of (and in both cases they actually DID taste) the beach. Willow played fetch so much that her mouth was filled with sand...in Gracie's case we sat her in the sand and she managed to grab a handful and shovel it toward her face. We knew she would do it, but Shell's reflexes...s-l-o-w. GG didn't get too much in her mouth, but the look on her face was priceless. Then it was off to Dave and Missy's house where we could leave our bags and so they could meet GG. We were staying with them after the first night, and I knew they'd not want to wait that long to see the baby...Missy was quite in love, and Dave's mom Helen was there too and got some Gracie time as well... Thursday and Friday were spent recovering from the drive and having a lovely dinner and conversation with Dave, Missy and Josh. [coming in Part 2- hitting the links, poker night, and the big family dinner...]