What We Did On Our Summer Vacation

We've been gone all week on vacation in Door County, and, in the words of Peter Gibbons, "I did nothing, absolutely nothing, and it was everything I thought it would be."

Basically, the girls and I went to the beach every day (Darren worked). We brought our camera, and I meant to take great, artsy pictures like Julie K. and Alysa do: striped beach umbrellas, the girls' little feet in the sand, them eating copious amounts of a revolting ice cream called Blue Moon that tasted like Fruit Loops, stuff like that, but I realized I forgot the camera card, so I didn't even take any pictures of this glorious doing-nothing party.

The girls played in the water, and I sometimes I played with them or we looked for shells or made sand castles, and the rest of the time I laid on a beach towel and read. I reread To Kill A Mockingbird (and cried at all the same places I always do), Maeve Binchy's Circle of Friends, Rumer Godden's The Greengage Summer, and Diane Setterfield's The Thirteenth Tale. Then for the first time I read May Sarton's Journal of Solitude.

When we weren't at the beach, I played Crazy 8s and Go Fish with the girls and watched House Hunters on HGTV. For part of the week, my dad and Chuck and Rome came up too, which was great. We went to the park and climbed to the top of the tower like we always do. And I watched Elaine and Chuck play this hilarious passive-aggressive game they have made up (actually, Elaine made it up) called "Martinelli's." She stands in front of him with a pad of paper and a pen. Here's a sampling of their dialog:

Elaine: Welcome to Martinelli's. What would you like to eat?
Chuck: a hamburger and fries
Elaine: We don't have hamburgers and fries. What else do you want?
Chuck: Chinese food
Elaine: We don't have Chinese food. What else?
(This progresses on indefinitely as his requests get more and more outlandish, like shark fins, none of which can be found at Martinelli's. Then finally, Rome will try to help.)
Rome: May I have some salad?
Elaine: Sure, I can get you some salad.
Chuck: Why does she get salad? I don't think you have any food at this restaurant. I'll just have the Number 8 soup
Elaine: We don't have Number 8 soup. And we don't have Number 9, either.
Chuck: I don't believe you're writing anything I order on that pad. You're just scribbling on it.
Elaine: I am NOT just scribbling.
Chuck: Well then, read me what you wrote.
Elaine (lifts the paper up to her eyes, sighs, and begins with exaggerated patience in a robotic voice): It is im-poss-i-ble to read this to you because you are so mean.

They play variations of this game every time they're together.

Another highlight of the week was that I discovered Julie's Upscale Resale in Sister Bay. What a great store. It was filled with clothes (overpriced), accessories, and housewares, displayed really well--including having various pages from home/decorating magazines in all the little nooks throughout the shop, saying "Try this!" or "You could do this with this table!" etc. Brilliant idea.

I bought this tres cute Gucci purse for fall:



And these two scarves (she had lots of beautiful scarves). This one will look great with a red sweater...



And I love the cityscape pattern on this one...



So, that was Door County. Then on Saturday we headed to Minneapolis to a memorial for my cousin, Jon. He died unexpectedly of a heart attack at age 43. His family had a really nice service for him--a lot of good memories. I hadn't known him very well (we have a huge family), but I was glad that we could be there.

There was a luncheon afterward, and I'm still not sure what happened, but I started feeling sick and sicker as I was sitting there. I finally went outside to lie down in the car (in the 93-degree heat), and then Darren and the girls joined me. We started to drive to our hotel (with me still lying down and saying, "I'm dying. I'm pretty sure I'm going to die soon."), and Darren asked "What are your symptoms?"

"Please pull over right NOWWWWW...." I moaned. Yep. That was a pretty self-evident symptom.

We finally made it to the hotel and then to our room on the 10th floor where I pulled the shades, blasted the AC, and became one with the bed for several hours. Doubletree Minneapolis, I love you so.

While I was unconscious, Darren took the girls swimming and then out to dinner. When I finally woke up, I felt somewhat better, it was thunderstorming like crazy outside, and I found When Harry Met Sally on cable.

The next day we came home, and today Darren's gone to his office while I've got two little suntanned girls and loads of laundry to do. It was a good week.

What have you been doing this summer?