Well, as of this morning, Susie and I have entered another new phase of our Adventure. For the last several years, we have been increasing our summer time spent in Ocean City. We started 13 years ago with 2 weeks, then increased it to 3, and the last year I worked (the summer of 2015), we spent the entire month of July here! As wonderful as that was, in a sense, it made the ultimate packing up of our “stuff” difficult, just so we could turn our dream over to renters.

Last year, with both of us retired, we spent most of May, June, and July here, kind of blocking out the need to empty out the Mineola house. Last year, however, on August 21st, we left on our Big Adventure trip across the country, which ultimately lasted 9 weeks. It was sad, but it made sense to rent the house again, and we did starting the first Saturday in August. That once again necessitated packing up our personal items, our good glasses, and packing away our clothes, shoes, and especially our booze! A sad time for us again, even though we were looking forward to the great trip we’d planned.

Well, today is the first Saturday in August, and I am sitting writing this blog post on our front porch, watching a new crowd of Pennlyn visitors unloading cars, getting organized, having their first beer, and starting their dream week of vacation! We are here, and we’re staying here!! For the first time, Susie and I will be spending August, September, and the beginning of October at the beach. In fact, if you really want to know, we live here pretty much full time now. The culmination of a dream we’ve had for years is about to come to fruition….We live in Ocean City, NJ!!

In fact, the reason I said the beginning of October, is that we’re flying out for a 2 week trip, exploring some of Nevada and California that we’ve never seen before, and to top it off, we will be leaving and returning to Philadelphia International Airport! We have made the move…in our minds at least.

Now, if you are interested in our progress on the other end, last week Susie and I came to the conclusion that we have moved virtually everything that we want from our old house to Ocean City (except for some last minute necessities we need there). Some of it will surely be weeded out from here (our closets are little full), and there are things we’ve stashed in our rented storage place down here, that we will go through over the winter, and some of that stuff will probably leave us too, but it’s done! What’s left at 40 Fairfield Avenue is not coming to Ocean City, and so a process that we wondered if it would ever end, has ended!

 

Progress too on other fronts…we’re meeting next Friday with a lady that conducted a tag sale at my Mom’s house, and hope she’ll say we have enough stuff for her to do the same thing for us. Then someone who is interested in the house wants to set up a time to take a look, so good things there too. When we left Mineola last Wednesday, Susie and I both realized it’s almost over, and trust us, we are glad!

So, if you are looking for us for the rest of the summer and fall, you can either find us on Pennlyn Place Beach, or on our front porch. As the new porch sign Susie got this year says, “Come Sit On The Porch With Me…The Drinks Are Cold And The Friendship’s Free”