anagram of brat

• Oak Bluffs! I realize it's entirely fabricated to be as appealing to tourists as possible, but I can't help but be charmed by the rows of tiny brightly painted gingerbread houses crowded around little parks. It feels quite a bit like walking through one of those facade villages of a theme park, except that people are actually LIVING in those tiny houses.
  
  
• Mad Martha's. Expensive, but man can they do a root beer float.
  
  
• Ferry food. Good enough to distract me from my utter dislike of boats and open water.
  
  
• Beach bonfire, even if we forgot the sticks to toast marshmallows.
  
  
• Watching cell23 in full on Dad mode, chasing and getting chased by both of his children in the surf.
  
  
• Realizing that this has been the longest period of contiguous time we've had the kids and kinda not wanting them to go home afterward.
  
  
• Watching Kidzilla go from a shy retiring ghost to a giggly affectionate kid with the rest of my family.
  
  
• Shaking my head at Nuke's burgeoning sea glass obsession. That's not hyperbole, she actually forbade anyone staying in the house to come back from the beach without at least one piece.
  
  
• Skee ball.
  
  
• Bunch of Grapes bookstore. Still proud of myself for managing to walk out of that place without buying, like, five blank journals.
  
  
• Watching Kidzilla's face as she won at the arcade, tasted fudge, and hunted shells on the beach for the first time and loved every single second. Her and G getting on like a house on fire was pretty cute too.
  
  
• Speaking of cute, Lil'Beast going hard with the big blue eyes and dimple charm and having almost everyone fall for it.
  
  
• Getting to catch up with the fam was great for the most part. I realize I don't see anyone nearly enough.
  
  
• Long periods of time just staring out at and being soothed by the sea.
  
  
• Finally acquiring something with The Black Dog on it.
  
  
• seeing bunnies everywhere this time instead of skunks.
  
  
• taking mostly pretty fantastic pictures with my phone instead of having to drag out the Hatemonger.
  
  
• Managing multiple trips to the beach without either dropping my phone into the ocean or getting it full of sand, nor sunburning. Not that I burn easily. Bonus for neither ghost pale child burning either. All hail good strong sunscreen.
  
  
• Making good progress on Vulpix. (More on that later.)
  
  
• Meeting up with cell23's family on the island after their arrival on Thursday.
  
  
• Staying up late and getting punchy with Ale the last night there. Always terrified by how similar we sound when we laugh.
  
  
• Coming home and having both cats instantly forgive us.

I think I'm okay with being back home and having to work tomorrow, except for still having a post-yard sale disaster still up in my house to clean up on top of unpacking. I'm trying not to twitch about it too much. I'm giving myself until Thursday to get it mostly handled; seems reasonable, right?

As for the island, another year of memories made. cell23 and I might return in October to celebrate our anniversary/my birthday, but even if not, there is always Christmas and next summer at Harthaven to look forward to.