Most folks don't go to the Shore in the winter. I did this past weekend. I needed a break and one of my relatives called on Thursday with an invitation.
One of my distant cousins has a small house near Point Pleasant (think Bruce Springsteen and Asbury Park-it's sort of near there, north of Atlantic City). Its two blocks off the beach, has a small front yard, a small back yard, a very small garage, did I say small? It's winterized and she rents it out for an ungodly sum of money in the summer (one week to ten days at a time so she can use it too) and occasionally during the off season. She has a tenant coming in for the month of March and she decided to use this past weekend to do finish some redecorating and her monthly cleaning. I got an invite to come on down, she wanted some company. Friday after work I packed up the dogs, something’s for our lunch and breakfast (97% of the eateries in the area are closed for the season), and off I went. I drove down in a wicked rain storm, but woke up to clear blue skies.
It was actually very nice. Sunny, windy, but nice. My cousin did not have that much to do, she had been up the weekend before to paint, she was just hanging back up curtains, re-arranging furniture, making sure the mice had not taken up permanent residence, etc. We watched cable TV, took the dogs for a walk on the beach, moved furniture, read, had dinner at a local restaurant (she paid) and then watched a movie and called it a night. Sunday was more of the same, but I packed up and headed home around 2 PM.
The Budgeting Babe in me wondered why I spent a good chunk of my gas budget going back and forth to the Shore, but it was nice to get away and not have to do anything for almost 48 hours other than eat, sleep, walk the dogs and watch TV.
Now if she would let me have the house for a week (heck I'd take a long weekend or two) in the summer, which would be very cool!
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