Independence Day at the Poynte

So we’re off for our first trip since the honeymoon, and as much as I love the Jersey Shore, it might not be entirely the same as Bora Bora. On the bright side, things don’t cost an arm and a leg in Somers Point like they do in French Polynesia, unless you want to count Spirit Airlines, who charges $5-15 to reserve a seat ahead of time (even a middle seat) and $3 for a freaking Sprite. Needless to say, my dissatisfaction with their company continues. Of course I have a price point at which I will fly them regardless of their lousy customer service, but for every $24 round trip like we got for Jay and Trace’s wedding, there’s the 11 hours a flight was delayed from Ft. Myers to ACY years ago (landing on a Monday morning at 5am then having to drive back to Hoboken, THEN go to work) or their refusal to change our tickets last January when I mistakenly booked them on the Monday morning (rather than Tuesday morning) of my Grandmother’s memorial service. So keep sending me $1 fares for Tuesdays and Wednesdays and I’ll continue to use your airline only when it’s convenient AND cost effective. OK… Back to the shore…

The one thing Jen and I have noticed is that time spent “back home” is busy, to say the least. It is almost always a great time and as action packed a travel weekend as you can get, but man do we feel exhausted by the end of the weekend. It’s the unfortunate side effect of having quite a few people who like to spend time with us when we make it home, and for that we feel very lucky… just makes for a tiring Monday morning! I’m sure staying up until the crack of dawn on Friday night didn’t help, nor did the game of Crazy 8’s that had Caniz informing the tiki bar that his wife did indeed wear the pants in this relationship. Mixed in with all of the debauchery was some good time spent watching fireworks, fixing the hot tub, taking a boat ride (and having the inevitable breakdown, just a couple hundred yards from our house), some great eating courtesy of Mom (and white house hoagies from Rogish) and getting to see a whole bunch of family and friends. The highlight of the weekend though (if you can call it that) was Dad flipping the waverunner back in the marshes, then having to get towed in by Dave and Jimmy. A Tom Sharpe waverunner or boat incident is almost an assured event over a Poynte holiday weekend; luckily this didn’t happen when little Jackson Rogish was on board (Alison already nearly had a heart attack letting her boy out there). As dusk settled and the Tall Cedar came back with a Sharpe waverunner in tow (again), the I-95 A-hole song was replaced with Pat Franklin’s song (trying to keep it clean for the kids).

Sunday Recovery Day left us all pretty tired, but we did get to go to AC for Mom's birthday before we left. Lehman drove us to the Philly airport; quick side note, there was NO traffic on the ride up. None. We didn't even slow down at the EZPass lane on the Expressway toll. It was crazy, for a Sunday late afternoon holiday weekend. Thanks to everyone who stopped by for all or part of the weekend, and apologies to those we kept up too late or woke up in the middle of the night. It was really good to see everyone, and even if my body might not be back to 100% until Wednesday, it was certainly worth it.

UPDATE: I'm too lazy and buzy to actually link words to individual pictures, so here's the link to the weekend pictures. Enjoy...

UPDATE2: This is what soldiers look like when they are resting... thanks to lehman...