Beach Bound!!!

I've known for quite some time that I needed to plan myself a little vacation, but I wasn't sure where I wanted to go or when I could possibly sneak away from my daily responsibilities. In the past several years, every time I got out of town I headed for the beach, and I was really thinking I wanted to try something new this summer. But the same question kept running through my mind: When I want to relax, where do I go? The answer is always the same. I go somewhere near a body of water.

My mom has lived on the lake for years, and waking up to a steaming cup of coffee on the deck while looking out over the water puts me practically in a vegetative state. As The Eagles crooned, "I get a peaceful, easy feeling." There's just something about being on the water that's comforting. And that's just the lake. The ocean provides a whole other level of contentment.

So, while I was surfing the web yesterday evening looking for a new destination, I found myself constantly returning to the site where I booked my last vacation a couple of years ago. It was then I realized I wanted to go back to the beach. It hit me like a bolt out of the blue that it's not the act of sitting in the sand and sun that was my favorite part of a beach vacation. It was, instead, the late afternoons and early mornings up on the balcony with a good book, while hearing the waves crash onto the beach under sunny skies that really relaxed me. That's the place where I can quiet my mind and my heart and rejuvenate my soul.

So I booked it! And in case you don't know this already, if you book a beach vacation for the very end of the summer you can get a really great deal, and there won't be nearly as many folks out on the sand with you. But I'll be there! And I'll have my daughter and her best friend by my side. It will be a girls' week at the beach!

I can hardly wait.