It Has Begun

... the craziness, that is.

Last week I didn't post at all because it was our annual huge work conference and I worked twelve hour or so days for most of it.  It was a long, but very fun, week. 

Friday I worked in the morning before heading to Beverly Beach state park to camp with BF.



Beverly Beach



Along the Nature Trail



Ancient Stump... duh





HUGE ROOTS!






I'm under the tree!






Dinner!



We got out there in the mid-late afternoon and set up camp and then just hung out.  Saturday I woke up with my allergies all a-buzz and my eyes/face/neck covered in a lovely rash.  Who knows what it's from.  I spent the rest of our weekend and most of today chowing down Benadryl and slathering on ointment.  Awesome!

Despite the allergic reactions to camping, BF and I had a great time.  Saturday we walked along the beach and collected agates and jasper for my mom (she is now what the call a "Rock Hound" and has started collecting and polishing them).  After our stroll on the beach we wandered to see the Beverly Beach State Park attractions.  We found the really old stump, a nature trail that lead us around the wooded area of the park through groves of trees with huge roots above ground that we could fit under, and then finally we wandered back to camp to roast our dinner over the fire. 

Saturday evening we stayed up late in the tent and read the last Harry Potter book out loud to eachother until we were too tired to continue.  I woke up around 3am when I heard the strangest sound.  As I sat in the tent I realized what I was hearing... the wind coming up from the beach through the little grove we were camping in before it got to us.  It was pretty cool, and then all of a sudden the wind hit our campsite!  A few minutes later it started raining pretty hard.  As the wind and rain lulled me back to sleep, it also knocked a few branches from the trees and woke BF up with quite a start.  We got up around 7am and everything was SOAKED.  We ate breakfast and packed camp up as I tried not to scratch my face.  We were done in record time and headed back home around 9:30am to get ready for our week.

Up next:  Packing and moving this week and next.  Then I'm off to meetings and store openings!