oh, i just had the most amazing beach vacation with my sweet man! his grandfather, pop, let us stay in their family's beach vacation home in amelia island. it has been a long time since this lily white flower has seen the beach...
1. having the beach to ourselves...incredible. new york is one hustle and bustle city and it is quite a surreal sensation to go from a city packed with people like sardines, to a sprawling sea side with hardly any souls disturbing the landscape. the quiet crashing of waves and our mo-town beach tunes provided the only soundtrack for our ears.
2. finding one tiny conch shell, perfect and no bigger than a stick of gum. i saw children dragging their buckets that were bursting with shells and i became so envious. i was hoping to find a shark tooth but instead i found the sweetest little shell, and i knew it was meant to be. i gave it to the lovely chelsea cook and it is currently on her studio desk.
3. spanish moss. my goodness, all of the trees were dripping with spanish moss and it made me very nostalgic for savannah. i even thought about convincing eddie to take a day trip there since amelia island is only a few hours away. something about this moss is so romantic and kind of creepy at the same time.
4. cobalt blue. this color kept popping up on the trip...in ed's shorts and in a row of beach umbrellas. i miss color, since i don't see too much of it in the concrete jungle of new york city.
5. seafood. i ate all the shrimp, crab, and oysters to my heart(and stomach's) content. fried, steamed, broiled, you name it. i felt like bubba gump.
6. ed showed me the house where pippi longstocking was filmed. amazing. it looked just like how it did in the movie, but with a fresh coat of paint. my favorite scene was when they cleaned the house and she wore those scrubbing brush shoes. it made me actually want to clean...
7. kissing my sweet man for 5 days. i love to smooch and i've loved kissing him for the last 11 years. it really never gets old. he really is the best thing to have ever happened to me.
8. fort clinch. it's this site where civil war battles took place. you have to walk over a drawbridge through a tunnel into a circle of brick houses. each house was filled with different objects, mostly preserved relics but some recreated, to represent the space's purpose-the jail cell, the kitchen, the stock room, etc. i loved this so much!!!! nothing like a little glamorized stage of one of our nation's ugliest self-contained war to provide for photo opportunity.
9. american flags. whenever i see them i feel i should take a picture because i know my mother would. my mother loves american flag iconography, preferably in a folk art R.A. Miller sort of way, but really, she loves a good flag. and being back in the south, where everyone is proud to be an american...
10. being lazy without consequence. we had no schedule, no commitments, and had to answer to no one. we napped, lounged, watched t.v., snacked, and really took advantage of being away from it all. it felt so good to wake up every morning and just go with the flow.
11. thrifting!!! i made ed pull over just about any time i saw a storefront sign with "antiques" on it. i scored some lovely old children's books; two antique silhouettes; an old egg carton(back when package design for eggs was sweet and pictoral); and a box of primitive artist pencils. poor ed is so patient with me and my frivolous purchases. they were such good prices and i can't resist a good deal on old trinkets. my favorite ed quote, "really ginny, how many copies of alice in wonderland and the wizard of oz does one girl need?" well...
12. the abandoned trains. all of the cars are covered in graffiti and each one tells a story. ed recalled tales of his youth where he and his father would comb train tracks and he would collect rusted spikes, various other debris and call it his treasure. don't you just love boys?
i loved every minute with him and this is just the beginning of a lifetime filled with beach stories...i can't wait.
