Clearing Skies

It was raining when we got in to the car to leave Manhattan. Not a heavy and driving rain, but rather the kind of drizzle that lasts for hours so that you never quite get all the way warm and dry.

In retrospect, it was probably a mistake to leave from the city, but we didn't really think it through when we made our plans and I had to work for most of the day, so from the city it was. We realized our mistake when it took us twenty-five minutes to travel one single block, and another forty-five before we were even in sight of the Lincoln Tunnel - the escape hatch from the holiday weekend and rain induced gridlock that had taken over Manhattan.

An hour and twenty minutes after we left my office we finally found ourselves on the other side of the tunnel. We were crabby and frustrated by the delay that we should have should have anticipated - I mean, we did live in the city for almost a decade and know its traffic whims better than anyone - and not at all looking forward to the three and a half hours of driving that separated us from our Memorial Day family weekend.

Newark looked just as dreadful as always as we made our way down the New Jersey Turnpike, and the pockets of slow traffic we hit every time we managed to actually go the speed limit threatened to drive me slowly insane.

But then.

It happened as we drove past the "Welcome to Delaware Sign." At first it was a separation of the clouds to reveal a patch of blue. And then rays of sun came arrowing down over a highway that was miraculously clear.

I slipped my sunglasses on and we stopped at a rest stop to put the top down.

And we drove away, clear, cool, gorgeous air rushing through the car, blowing around our hair. We smiled at each other, cranked up the music, and enjoyed the ride.

And what a ride it was.

Clouds clearing over the Delaware Memorial Bridge

We're this cool.

Spring Break

Sparkly Vacation Fingers

The sun is shining, the birds are back, and I just walked through midtown without a jacket and without freezing to death.

Spring is finally here, and that can only mean one thing. Passover is on the horizon.

While not my most favorite holiday on the Jewish calendar, Passover does have a special air about it. Things that are green are coming back, the world is a little bit warmer, and we are being released from winter's icy grip. We can finally leave our houses and enjoy the world that has been covered with snow for much of the past six months, and look ahead to summer fun.

For me, Passover is also about family. It is about getting together and being together for days at a time. About celebrating a holiday with my people; the ones I come from and the ones who only became mine later on. For eight days we will take a breath and give thanks as the seasons change, the world keeps on spinning, and we move ever forward.

This year, I will be dividing Passover in half to spend it with both my family and David's family. And even though the holiday doesn't start until Monday night, my spring break starts tonight.

Because tonight, as the clock strikes midnight, we will be boarding a plane bound for Israel, where we will spend an amazing week on the beautiful beaches of Tel Aviv with David's family before heading to Ohio to spend the second half of the holiday with mine.

I'll be in and out of here sporadically over the next two weeks, but I already can't wait to be back with what I'm sure will be epic vacation tales to tell and many, many pictures to post.

My bags are packed, my beach books are stacked, and my fingernails are painted with silver sparkles.

Vacation, I'm coming for you.

Family Vacation, Jersey Shore Style

That time I sat in the trunk of the car on the way to Ocean City
in the middle of the night

Ocean City Boardwalk

Cousins

Who doesn't need 8 pounds of salt water taffy?

Ventnor City, NJ

Night out

Mom

Beach Weekend

I'm tan and everything I own smells like sunscreen. So in my head, I'm still at the beach.

This past weekend, we celebrated my best friend's impending wedding with a trip to a beach resort on Cape Cod

Celebrations got underway Thursday night with pizza at my house, accompanied by a midnight viewing of the amazing Pitch Perfect and a ferociously late bedtime. Bleary-eyed, we packed up the car with the essentials:

Hit Dunkin' Donuts for coffee, and got on the road.

Three hours, forty minutes and one I-95 rest stop later, we made a quick detour for some additional essentials:

Then made it to our beachfront hotel where we were greeted with this view:

Not too shabby.

And the view from the back porch of our lake-side room? Spectacular.

A beach-side lunch was the first order of business:

Followed by some serious beach-sitting and reading time:

As the sun started to go down, it turned cold. When we were packing, none of us considered a sweatshirt a necessary item for a beach vacation, so the cool weather gave us the opportunity to hunt up some delightful Cape Cod swag:

I can't take pictures on Saturday because of Shabbat, but Saturday's activities included an early morning yoga class on the beach, pina coladas on the beach, snacks on the beach, reading on the beach, dancing The Macarena, The Electric Slide, Cotton-Eyed Joe and Cha-Cha Slide with a bunch of little kids, and a twilight swim.

Saturday night we got all dressed up and spent the night in Hyannis, eating dinner and celebrating the bachelorette:

And then getting stopped at a sobriety checkpoint on the way back to the hotel:

When we woke up Sunday morning our room looked like this:

Evidence of a weekend well-spent. Also proof that we packed way too much, and didn't make a mistake by buying the fancy plastic wine cups at the grocery store on Thursday night.

M, it was our greatest pleasure to spend the weekend celebrating with you. We all wish we were still on the beach.