Road trip

Every January, I get an urge to go to the beach. One year, on our way to the nearest beaches, we made a wonderful discovery: the Book Barn (actually several barns and sheds and decrepit buildings, housing thousands of books and countless cats). That became our January beach-day companion destination. The next year, we brought friends, and they asked to go to Mystic Pizza. Today, we headed out for that same road trip, sure to become an annual affair.

The book barn is a dream for book-lovers (if you can handle the cat smell...). Here is just a tiny portion of the craft section:



And here are the Little Golden Books in the kids' room:



(I'll show you my finds tomorrow. Several came from these boxes.)

Once we'd filled our bags with books, we headed off to Mystic for its famous pizza.



Julia Roberts wasn't there today, but we got to watch her in all her big-haired glory on a silently-running t.v. while we ate. And they made Andi and Lucy a dairy-free pizza. Happy baby!



Finally, it was time for the beach. Unfortunately, by now it had started to rain, and the temperature was dropping. But nothing keeps me from the beach. Our first glimpse:



Ahhh...something about that vast expanse of sand and water just melts all my stress away.

We had different ways of exploring. Tim and Eric walked:



Lucy got down on her belly and put her face right down for a good taste of the sand:



We weren't quick enough to catch it on camera, but we were there just in time to watch a seagull try to manage its meal of a giant starfish.

By then we were thoroughly chilled and ready to get back in the car. But I can't wait to go back. Books, pizza, and the ocean...a perfect antidote for January.