Well, today I decided to tackle Linda G Hill’s SOCS with a vacation recap of sorts with her Saturday prompt: Your Friday prompt for Stream of Consciousness Saturday is “up/down.” Use one, use both, but try to put one in your first sentence. Bonus points if you use one in your last sentence. Have fun!

June 18-22 we got to go down to Crystal Beach on the Bolivar Peninsula with our friends Kerry and Michelle. It was a kind of last-minute thing, because she was going to take her grandkids, but Emma got hurt on an ATV, so if she couldn’t go, no one could. So Michelle kindly invited us, and after lots of scrambling, changing appointments, and making sure Dave could get a couple of days off, we were in. I have been patiently waiting for a chance to get out of here for a bit, so I was extremely excited. Not to mention, I had not seen Michelle in quite a long time.

Our first day there we arrived in the late afternoon, so we just hung out and visited. The usual, unpack the bags and figure out where your toiletries will go in a one-bathroom unit. Thank goodness it was just the 4 of us. The little beach house was perfect, lots of space and a big table I immediately deemed game-ready. We both brought games for the possibility of bad weather, so we were set there. Unfortunately, we had no water view or close beach access by car, but Dave rented a golf cart, so all worked out perfectly.

The second day was a beach day. The guys set up the tent cover while we were getting ready (how nice of them) and off we went. It was unfortunate that the rip currents were very strong, something I would have previously ignored, but now I paid attention to because of my knee. I didn’t want to go acting a fool and end up hurt for the rest of our much-needed break. Wow. At 60 I guess I’m finally growing up. 🤣🤣 So, instead, we slathered ourselves with sunscreen and oil and laid out in our beach chairs, listened to music, watched the cool horses and wagons parade down the beach (I have no idea what that was about) and generally enjoyed the day in the sun and water. I was very relaxed with the situation and not worried about a thing because I was enjoying a nice buzz from my CBD-I don’t even think I had an adult beverage until right before we closed up for the day. (In fact, I stayed that way most of our trip so I wouldn’t worry or be anxious my whole vacation.) I did get some color, but I didn’t get crispy except for a little on my face. It always happens, I guess my nose sticks out to far, lol. I end up looking like Rudolph and have to pile on the makeup to cover the next day.

We went back to the casa and cooked up a nice dinner, then stayed up until two-thirty in the am playing chicken foot and Phase-10. I love both of those games, but man, Phase-10 is a loooong game!! The next morning, we got up slowly, and Dave and I went exploring and wound up at Ft Davis again, at the tip of the peninsula. It is an old Army Battery with lots of cool bunkers and the remnants of the base that used to be there. You can’t go in any of the bunkers, but I got lots of cool pics, and they have everything marked that was once there before one of the hurricanes that area has seen wiped everything out. Then it was off in search of a tasty coffee beverage for me (I was on vaca, so I ate and drank what pleased me) and we found it in a little bait and tackle shop of all places. Crystal Beach is nothing like Port Aransas. Not many fancy coffee shops there. I took what I could get, which ended up being a Turtle Frappuccino. OMG, it was so delicious, but very sweet. Chocolate and caramel in my coffee? Yes please!!! Once we got back to the shack, it was decided that we would take the opportunity to go to Galveston after Dave and I watched our church service. That is where everything went wrong. Two and one half hours waiting in line for the ferry. Then we get over there and set up at Salsa’s and what do I do?? Reached for my water and spilled it all over the table and part of Michelle. Ugh. Dinner was good and the drinks so so, but I never hooked up with my Facebook friend, a subject I talked about in my last post. Why no one wanted to fart around in Galveston I don’t know, but after dinner we just went back to the ferry and waited a short time to cross back to Crystal Beach. I think that might have been the night we watched a movie and yearned for popcorn we forgot to buy.

Monday was our last beach day. It was much less crowded than the first day, with most visitors having returned home, so the beach was ours. It was overcast, and the sea was very angry and roiled up. We didn’t go out much even though the rip tide was low, because we didn’t want to get all wet and then sit on the beach freezing to death…it was super windy that day. There had been all those storms in the gulf. So, since the guys went to play golf, us ladies just hung out, laid out, and yacked our heads off. We were unable to set up the cover due to the high wind, so we had just taken the golf cart down with all of our chairs, the radio, and stayed until it looked like rain was coming again. Not ideal, but good enough for us. It still counted as a beach day in our book. We went back to the house and got ready to go out to dinner at Steve’s Landing, a favorite place of ours. When we lived in Groves, we made many trips to Crystal Beach, that’s how we got familiar with that restaurant. Anyway, I had been suffering the whole time with ulcers on my tongue, so my choice of coconut curry fish was not a good one, even though it was decadent and delicious! It burned my ulcer so bad I almost cried. And then, I also discovered-rather painfully-that the tooth I just had fixed was now hurting as well. As soon as the heat hit it, it felt like an exposed nerve and pain exploded in my mouth. At least I had a delicious, cold, tropical beverage to wash it down with! We saw a barge go down the channel, and then drove back home to hang out before heading back the next morning, in a severe thunderstorm.