Once Upon a (Beach) Time

Once upon a time, a mom and her girl went to the beach. The purpose of the trip was a vacation for the mom, and a working trip for the daughter. They drove to the coast late one night and listened to songs that soothed the daughter and made the mom wonder what in the heck her child was listening to. (With a few exceptions.)

The daughter worked in between bouts of extreme ear disease, wherein she lay near expiration on the bed while the mother, being a mom, took care of her offspring.

When the daughter was working, the mother borrowed said daughter's car and drove up and down the coast, seeing what there was to see, stopping where there were places to stop, and generally enjoying herself.

In some places there were outcroppings of rock. In others, there was plenty of foam. 

In yet other places, there were trees mostly blocking the view, which made for dramatic photo settings.

Seafoam's like the sea's whipped cream...except whipped cream shouldn't hiss.

One day, the daughter left work and decided to go to the state park with her mom. It was late in the day, but they wanted to make every minute count. Although they couldn't see the tide pools, they drove down to see the lighthouse anyway.

The daughter had been so intent on going to play that she forgot to take her name tag off, and as it was cold and time was short, she didn't notice until it was too late and the white blob was in all the pictures.  

Oh well. At least she's labeled!

The fog around them was fast and thick, moving not with little cat feet, but with slithery snakiness. From the time these two pictures were taken, no more than five minutes had elapsed. The lighthouse went from being picturesque to fulfilling its purpose while they were there -- if you look hard, you can see the beacon of light at the top of the house.

The mom and daughter had been having a discussion about this blog. The mother told the daughter that implied presence was very important. (They had a discussion about proper office decor. It was a suitable segue.) The mom wanted to be the implied presence for the rest of the photos.

Here's the mother's implied presence.

Then they went to dinner, and had calamari and crab cakes, some prawn delicious salad (the daughter found that although prawn are tolerable, it was really the rest of the salad that was magnificent), and some Brazilian stew concoction with coconut milk. They shared with each other. :) (The mother said the crab cakes were in her Top Five Ever.)

Thank you, Yelp, and Local Seafood, for helping them achieve this yumminess.

The pair shopped in bed in the hotel room (a surprisingly fun novelty). They evaluated crockpots and used a color/frame wheel to put their favorite prints with the very best combinations of framing combinations. They ate salad out of plastic containers and pre-peeled boiled eggs. The daughter ate vast quantities of potato chips and the mom ate lots of everything else.

This just goes to show you that while you can lead by example, you can only lead a horse (daughter) to healthy food; you can't make her drink (partake).

On their way out of town, they spied a tree that had been trimmed to avoid the telephone/electricity poles. And they stopped at a little gallery. Black and gold bowls and glass intricacies caught the mother's fancy, and a series of oils of the coast were the focus of the daugher's experience. There was also the ultimately comfortable rocking chair for the mother, which was not the most comfortable rocking chair experience ever for the daughter (unsurprising), and there were an awful lot of contemporary abstract lamenesses, regardless of whose point of view you take.

The daughter was so enchanted with the oils that she bought not just one, but two. She had them wrapped, like Mallow and Wallow, and they are still bundled safe in their little cradles of bubble wrap, in anticipation of next week's move.

Another road trip, another set of experiences, and another beach comb behind them, mother and daughter are now on to the next adventure.

What's next? Stay tuned to find out. (The story won't be on the 11 o'clock news. These things take more time to develop than the next headline.)