Like this holiday weekend. Which is really over and done with now, as I sit at my desk once more, the workweek ahead of me.

But I had a very good time this Labor Day. Ash and I left a little before four o’clock on Friday afternoon. We decided not to follow my dad’s quick and easy directions (Ok, Ash decided and I went along) and so we took I-10 to 75 to I-4, all the way across to Daytona and down to North Palm. We spent a little over seven hours driving there, whereas the drive home – by way of the turnpike – saved us an entire hour; even including stops to let the dogs out.

On Saturday morning we took the three pups to my grandparents’ house to meet them and also, my aunt’s Scottish terrier, Baillie. She’s kind of finnicky so their encounter was brief and nerve-wracking. They did ok but if she started to pick on one of mine, the rest came to the rescue and ganged up on her. It was pretty amusing. We had sandwiches for lunch and pretty much just visted for the rest of the day before my grandmother made her ever-tasty lasagna. Oh yeah, that’s right. While Ash and my dad watched college football (and napped) my mother, aunt and I went over to their new City Place, which is a lot like Winter Park Village, if you are familiar. We first went to a place called The Grape, which is a wine bar. I had a particularly good wine, a red that was light and sort of… jammy. I don’t normally like fruity wines but it was two in the afternoon and that seemed right. After our little wine excursion, they took me into the largest Whole Foods Market I have ever seen! It was like a Whole Food Costco, it was so huge. We sampled everything in sight and I was in grocery shopping heaven.

I got up at 6:30 on Sunday morning so that I could go walking on the beach with my parents and grandfather. Although I had seen it many times before, we wanted to revisit an old ship’s boiler that is partially buried on the shore. This article from my grandparents’ newspaper will explain more about it. In fact, my grandfather is mentioned within the first line! We walked a total of two miles,scouring for good shells and admiring the multi-million dollar seaside homes that will inevitably incur hurricane damages. We also saw lot of sea turtle nests, some undisturbed but some eaten early on in the development stage and one where the babies hatched but a lot died. I went back home to change and in the afternoon, we visited some more until dinner time when we all went out for Mexican; yum.

Alas, Monday was our last day. Ash and I got up and out by eight so we could take the dogs to the beach for the very first time. Todd, of course, was brave about the water. In fact, he ran right in. I figured that Iggy would be the scared one but he did much better than Zoey, who wanted nothing to do with the surf. We ran them up and down the beach and wore them out pretty good before washing them and carting them back to my aunt’s place.

Ash and I were extremely happy to be home. He especially since he had driven that entire way just a day before our own trip. We reveled in the coziness and safety of our home; watched the FSU game and ate comfort food before dozing off early. Elliot, Ash’s brother, gets into town this afternoon by 3 and we have our fantasy football draft tonight. He’s bringing his pug so the week is going to be very interesting.

For now, I think I must splurge and get myself a coffee. I think I got a little too much sleep and it is having the opposite effect on me.