Summer Vacation

I can't say that our family vacation to the NH seacoast was relaxing, but it was filled with a lot of new experiences for the girls. We stayed at a hotel in downtown Portsmouth and got to walk to dinner and around the city streets.

We hit the beach with friends in York, Maine and Rye, New Hampshire and I even let the girls indulge in a big, sweet slurpy from the beach snack bar. Boy, were they surprised and happy.

The walk back from the snack bar across the hot, dry sand was torturous.

Though I prefer the lake over the beach, I appreciate the vastness of the ocean and the beach and how much you walk to explore without even realizing it. Tom and Ava walked way out to a crop of rocks that jutted out into the ocean and joined a family in a cliff jumping adventure. Ava came back with her teeth chattering. The "cliff jumping" was the highlight of Ava's trip.

I think Julia was happy just playing in the sand and filling her pail with water time and time again.

As much as I felt guilty about not getting much running in, the rest was needed. I returned home to run my usual 10-mile hilly loop with friends and seem to have aggravated a case of tendonitis in my foot. If only I could keep that relaxed vacation mindset at home....