Busy Bees

It's been since the unofficial start of summer that I have last posted. Summer has definitely begun and Ben and I both couldn't stand the heat, so we made our way to the Jersey shore for the holiday weekend. Thankfully, we have an all-inclusive stay at Ben's parents house.
First, we found time before we were set free from the work week to pick our Tour de France Fantasy teams.
My team:
Schleck A.
Cavendish
Bellotti
Armstrong
Martin
Farrar
Vande Velde
Evans
Sastre
Dean

Ben's Team:
Contador
Hushovd
Basso
Wiggins
Cancellara
Leipheimer
Boasson Hagen
Zabriskie
Schleck F.
Vinokourov

Points are rewarded for stage finishes and overall standings. We picked teams recess style and Ben let me go first since I clearly have the disadvantage. Stage 3 came to a close today; we are both down a player due to injuries from the numerous crashes. As if you couldn't have guessed, Ben is currently in the lead, but there are 16 more stages to go! Oh, and if one of your guys wins the tour you receive a 25 point bonus. (I am hoping for my slobbering first pick, Andy Schleck!)

Anyways, back to the juicy stuff...
As per Ben, it took us 47 minutes to get from one side of the Walt Whitman bridge to the other. I, of course, got my mid-afternoon nap and was passed out! We made it to my future in-laws just in time for dinner followed by a 7pm viewing of Knight and Day.
We called it an early night after that because Ben was riding with team Beacon early Saturday morning. I got some extra hours of sleep and headed out to the beach with Kathy (Ben's mom) a little later in the morning. At 10am the beach was cool, empty, and we had plenty of hours filled with wedding talk. I am sure Ben didn't mind missing that, but there was something I was missing. Saturday, July 3rd, was my mom's birthday. I would have loved her company as much as she would have loved another weekend at the beach. [Happy Birthday, Mom! I love you!]
After his ride, Ben rode over to Ocean City to meet us there.


This is one of two bridges he had to cross to get onto the island.

It wasn't too long after Ben got to the beach that he demanded something substantial to eat, so we started our trek on the boardwalk to our usual lunch spot.


At the start of the boardwalk is this place called Brown's. Ben used to make donuts there. They are quite famous for them and they are quite delicious!


Mmmmm... My favorite slice of pizza with a diet Stewart's root beer!


Beach Day #1-- before the sun got its rays on us...

After showers, pedicure surgery at the nail salon, two advil, and a stop at the wine and spirits store we ventured to Smitty's Clam Bar for dinner.


They have the best New England clam chowder outside of New England. Ben enjoyed a Dogfish Head 90min IPA with his...


Kathy and I were unable to judge how much wine we were drinking out of the coke-a-cola cups. An hour or two later, I couldn't feel my throbbing toe anymore, and Ben had to drive us giggling girls home.

Beach Day #2- 4th of July

Ben has some predominant tan lines from his cycling kit.


His brother, Kris, taught him how to fix them.


We enjoyed a great day at the beach with the whole family.

That evening/night we were headed to Ben's aunt and uncle's house for a BBQ and fireworks.


Aunt Boppy is a science teacher! Classroom cleaning left these syringes free for the taking and held pina colada jello shots. They started off the night right...


Earl


and Georgie (both girls) are their adorable dogs. With how many pictures we take of other people's dogs, we obviously need to get ourselves one.


The jello shots were followed my Sam Adams summer ale and a sweet tea mixed drink. The picture explains it all.


Kris and Laura were ready for the fireworks to start!

Monday-- A day off from work!
We headed over to a family friend's pool to take a break from the crowds at the beach. What a bummer ;)

This was the pool.


This was the beautiful view from the pool. That's a lake yonder.


Kris got a little too much sun. "Yo, you better not put this on your blog!"


He didn't want to ruin his shirt, so his mom's was the next best thing to cover up with.


They had an outdoor kitchen, TV, bathroom, and plenty of umbrella and cabana shade to get out of the 103.7 degree heat!

It was such a great and relaxing weekend which abruptly came to an end on the Parkway North.

But that was okay, for me at least, I passed out shortly after taking the picture.