What I did on my summer vacation

So last week the wife and I took our first mid-summer vacation since 1985. That was also the last time we took a vacation without kids, until now. Don't get me wrong, we have done the Spring Break vacation several times, but this is our first vacation -- just the two of us -- since my daughter was born. A glimpse of life in an empty nest.

My youngest went with one of his friends to California. I took some of my accumulated hotel points and booked the wife and I a short stay at a beach side hotel on the Emerald Coast, the Redneck Riviera. We drove down on Wednesday, with plans to head back home on Monday. I figured four days at the beach would be enough for me. I am not into sand.

Thursday and Friday we cloudy, but we hit the stunningly white beaches anyway. Saturday was a complete rainout, and Sunday was not much better. We had a good time anyway. Both of us were with our favorite person in the world --- me! (that is a joke). Monday dawned bright and sunny.  We decided to check out of the hotel and went the beach. We stayed until late afternoon, jumped in the hotel pool to rinse off the sand and sunscreen, and changed in the hotel lobby restrooms before climbing into the car for the 12 hour drive home on Monday.

We were cruising along and I was thinking about the Battles of Franklin and Nashville. Cities and places always stir my brain on road trips. Suddenly the wife started messing with the A/C.  I noticed it was getting hot at the same time. The %*&#$ air conditioner quit! You have probably seen the news, it is summer and hotter than Hades these days. There was no place to stop at 11:00 PM in Nashville, plus I had to work Tuesday, so we just toughed it out; the windows down as much as we could stand. Today's cars are not made to drive with the windows down at 80 mph.  The wind noise is incredible. Perhaps I have forgotten what it was like to have a car with no A/C?

So, I smoked a few cigars on the Hotel porch, enjoyed a few days at the beach, shopped with the wife at some boutique stores, had some nice dinners, and a lot of laughs. Sunday night, the only evening it did not rain, the wife and I spent a nice hour or more more walking on the beach under a cloud shrouded moon. Most of the time we did not even talk. More than thirty years together as a couple will allow you to do that.

It was like every vacation I ever had, I was ready to be home, and hated to leave. I guess that made it just right.