Bark Of Our Souls

I Saw From the Beach

I saw from the beach, when the morning was shining,
  A bark o'er the waters move gloriously on;
I came when the sun o'er that beach was declining,
  The bark was still there, but the waters were gone.

And such is the fate of our life's early promise,
  So passing the spring-tide of joy we have known;
Each wave that we danced on at morning ebbs from us,
  And leaves us, at eve, on the bleak shore alone.

Oh, who would not welcome that moment's returning
  When passion first waked a new life through his frame,
And his soul, like the wood that grows precious in burning,
  Gave out all its sweets to love's exquisite flame.

Thomas Moore

Each spring, we all wait in joyous anticipation for Memorial Weekend to arrive.  In addition to honoring our brave military heroes, it also marks the date of our annual trek to Galveston Island.  We are always eager to see our wonderful friends Kenny and Hailey and their precious daughters Carley and Aubrey.

With things around the house currently so mixed up, I was sure that our 7 year string of glorious travels would be broken.  It just did not seem right to me to be at the beach without Lori there to enjoy it with us.  Personally, my feet have not touched sand in 20 years without Lori by my side.  The kids have never experienced the ocean without mom's watchful eye and playful demeanor.

I did not know what to do.  I was very conflicted.  On one hand,  I know that I unfortunately have to get the kids used to the idea of worldly travels without the comfort and joy of their mom being there, but on the other hand, I knew none of us would have nearly as much fun without Lori there by our sides.

I finally decided to just ask her to go with us.  I knew she would probably say "no", but I would not be happy with myself if I didn't at least try.  So, I did.  I can't tell you how happy the kids and I were when she said YES.  She said that she would go to help out with the kids and visit with our friends, and that was certainly enough for me.  Sure, I would have loved to have gone as "partners" but just having her there as my friend was fantastic.  

Lori worked a night shift in the ER last Thursday, so the plan was to leave as soon as she got home on Friday morning.  She arrived at the house about 10:00am, and since I had already packed and loaded the CX-9, we left for Galveston about 10 minutes later.

The drive to the beach was easy, and the kids did great.  I only had to stop on the side of the road and threaten to beat them a few times.  No, not really.  As a matter of fact, they were pretty quite the entire time, and Lori was able to get a few hours sleep on the way down.

We got to the beach a little before 4:00pm and after unloading the car, we were dipping our toes in the water by 4:30pm.  Ahhhh........we love the ocean.

The water was really great, and warmer than usual for this time of year.  It was very refreshing, and relaxing.  Mystic of course, was giddy.

While Lori and Aidan took out the Boogie boards, I grabbed my phone to record the "intense surfing action"
 

We left the beach about 6:00pm, and went back to the beach house to await the arrival of our friends.  While we were waiting, I prepared some filets to cook on the grill, along with some asparagus.  The Canon family arrived a short time later, and we sat down to a wonderful meal, a great bottle of wine, and enjoyed each others company just like great friend should.

We were all pretty beat, so we got to bed fairly early.  We all looked forward to the Horseshoe tournament, and a full day at the beach on Saturday.

Saturday morning we got up pretty early, and Hailey made a fantastic breakfast casserole.  We feasted, and then went downstairs to play washers as the kids rode their scooters.  A little before noon we headed down to the beach for the annual "King Of the Beach" horseshoe tournament.

We had a pretty good turnout this year, with 24 players showing up.  I chose my number, and waited with anticipation to see who my partner would be.  Kenny and I always hope we drawl the same numbers, for we would really like to partner up some day.  We like to think that we would be "unstoppable".  Well, my partner this year turned out to be William.  No, not me....another William.  I took that as a good omen.

We did great the first game, winning easily.  I was ready to put our name on the trophy right then and there, until reality set in our next game.  We got pummeled.  We went to the loser bracket, were we ran into the eventual finals team.  We put up a good fight, but lost.  Oh well, maybe next time.  If I couldn't win, I wanted my buddy Kenny to take home the trophy.  I sat and cheered him on, and after 6 games, he and his partner were hoisting the trophy.  It was tons of fun.  Here is Kenny and his beautiful wife Hailey between games.

While we were playing horseshoes, Lori and the boys were enjoying a beautiful day on the beach.  It was not too hot, and lots of cloud cover.  The boys Boogie boarded and played like there was no tomorrow. 

Mystic and Aubrey were having a good time too!

We left the beach about 5:30pm, and everybody was pretty wiped out.  We met a couple of Kenny and Hailey's friends back at the beach house, and grilled a delicious dinner of chicken, pork and beef fajitas.  After dinner we all sat down very satisfied, and just listened to music, had a few cocktails, and laughed.  How fun.

Sunday was another day playing around the house, and spending a few hours at the beach.  Before we left for the beach, Kenny smoked some ribs for about 5 hours, and we had a great lunch before we left.  Yummy!

The beach was extremely crowded on Sunday.  It was the most people that I had ever seen down there.  There was still plenty of room to set up our canopy, and use the gulf as our personal playground.  We did, and it was FUN.  We came home with some tired monkeys.

 

Look at those precious freckles.

Sunset was beautiful.

Monday came in a flash.  It was Memorial Day, and that meant it was our last morning there.  I took Lori and the boys down to the beach in the golf cart to see the sun come up over the gulf.  It was inspiring.

Lori and Christopher were looking for sea shell in the sand.   So innocent.

The boys and I having a good time enjoying a great morning breeze.

God bless the men and women of our military who have sacrificed so much for our freedom.

We went to the beach one last time on Monday morning.  We stayed from 11:00am to 1:00pm, and we were all very sad to leave.

I packed up the car while the others were getting cleaned up.  We ate and said our goodbyes to our wonderful hosts, and we were on the road about 2:20pm.  We arrived home about 7:25pm last night.  It was nice to sleep in our own beds, but we were all missing the sounds of the waves.

William.

PS.  Lori, you are one in a million.  Thank you so much for going with us.  You still make life fun, and I feel blessed to have gotten to spend one more glorious time frolicking in the ocean with you.

It's wonderful to see your happy face.