The Beach...Day One

Chuck and I just got back from Sandestin, Florida, where we spent the last 5 days with our friends from the good old days.  Every day was good.....even the days that were stormy.  We ate great food, spent hours on their screened-in porch drinking coffee or wine...depending on the time of day, spent time at the beach, on a boat, shopping and meeting up with their friends and family.  We've known these friends for 18 years but only lived down the street from them for 3 of those years.... yet our friendship hasn't skipped a beat.  Some things never change in an ever changing world. 

DAY ONE...Sunday, July 4, 2010

Just a golf cart ride away from their house to the beach.

The beach was crowded and the skies were overcast. 

Chip and Chuck (we call them the "ch's") 

headed out earlier that day to pitch the tent for us.

The young ones played....well, I don't really know what you call this....but it involved 2 paddles and a very small ping pong ball.  Paddle ball? Ping Pong Ball?  Beach tennis?  Tiny Tennis? 

Honestly, if it involves a ball, I do not get involved. 

 I got the camera out and took a walk down the beach. 

The water was gorgeous...but the last storm, Alex,

had stirred up a little seaweed. 

 We never saw any oil,

 but the crews of workers were out just in case. 

Debbie gave Chuck this hat and told him

it was his only job this week.

  If he forgot, all he had to do was look up to remind himself. 

No one had to tell me to relax.

  I spent the month of June practicing.

Twice, some quick storms rolled through...

but we took cover under our tent...

and hey, we were at the beach...

so getting wet didn't really matter. 

We did, however, have to get back home

 to start grilling our dinner. 

Back at the house I took a picture of a picture I had painted of our friends' beachouse...as a token gift for our stay.

And here is the L. Young art I ordered for them...

for the new home they are building in Atlanta. 

It is their initial with an Italian house blessing

printed on the canvas. 

What can you really give to someone

who means so much to you? 

This is just a drop in the bucket.

Because there were way too many cooks in the kitchen, 

I decorated the center of the table...and stayed out of the kitchen.

Some of Chip and Debbie's friends had joined us

earlier at the beach....and again for dinner. 

 Ribs, sausage, chicken, Tommy Bahama's Asian cole slaw,

 finger potatoes, fresh bread with herbs and olive oil,

chilled wine........

and Bananas Foster over Blue Bell ice cream for dessert. 

YUM.

This is Debbie on the right.....

with her good friend, Jodi, from Atlanta. 

Debbie is holding her baby.

 Pauly is quite possibly the sweetest dog in the world. 

I held Pauly as much as possible this week. 

I made the girls a flower pin with 4th of July ribbons attached. 

The guys were jealous, I'm sure.

Pauly.  Loving life and his mama.

For all my crafter friends out there.......this is for you.

  How stinking cute and easy is this? 

Take it and run with it. 

Right as we were making plans to head back down

 to the beach to watch the fireworks,

 a tumultuous thunderstorm hit. 

While it was a little disappointing,

there was no way this ruined anything. 

We had all seen fireworks before...

and most likely would see them again. 

This picture was taken on a

 different setting on my camera...the camera I keep on Auto. 

So this will represent the fireworks this 4th of July, 2010.