A successful getaway.

On my way to Amelia Island, Florida a couple weeks ago, I had big plans to take lots of beach pictures for my own personal enjoyment and for when I needed to mentally escape to the ocean later on throughout the year. Meredith and I get a group together and take this trip annually. It's always something to look forward to on/around my birthday/4th of July weekend. Today, only a little over a week later, I found myself needing that mental escape, and unfortunately, I didn't have many pictures to run to! I hardly took any, and for that, I am now slapping myself on the wrist. Our little vacation was so relaxing that I rarely brought my phone out to play, let alone my camera.
I guess that means it was a successful getaway. I'll just have to re-live those moments on this page, in a different way: with words. My favorite part of any beach trip is the first morning. 
You wake up, brush your teeth, throw on some shorts and a tee, and walk out to the coast, because why stay at a beach house if you're not going to walk to the beach in the mornings. That's when it's calm. It's quiet. That's when it sounds like the inside of a seashell. That's when you can just sit on the sand and think profound thoughts like how deep the ocean is, and how small you are in comparison, and how events in your life can be just as unpredictable as the tides and all that good stuff.
I didn't get to do that this year.
This year I was always too exhausted from the previous day/evening, so I slept in, and by slept in, I mean until about 9am. And the reason I could only sleep in until 9am, is because we brought the old ball & chain puppy with us, and she's on a regular potty schedule. So, after waking up late(r), and then taking her out, and then deciding to bring her to the beach, and then having her flip out when the tide gets too close to her little paws, and then seeing the beach full of fisherman/women, I let go of the need to have my beloved moment of solace on the sand. The shore was still fairly empty, as illustrated in the first photo, but... I must admit, the dog cramped my style.
The rest of the weekend was spent laid out under the sun (I skipped the SPF, and I am not proud of this, I'm confessing my sins now), navigating the crowded piers of Jax Beach (also pictured above), grilling on the front lawn, watching fireworks in every direction on Independence Day (literally, on the evening of the 4th, everywhere we turned our heads there were fireworks bursting above. It was wonderful), and lighting some mini rockets of our own.

All in all, it was a good trip. We had a smaller group than usual, thanks to guests backing out at the last minute, but in the end, it felt like everyone who was supposed to be there was there. So, there. ♥