The Dog Days of Rehoboth Beach

Rehoboth Beach, Delaware: my second States-side home. For as long as I can remember, and then a few years further back, my family has been visiting this small seaside town in Delaware. Today, slightly bigger (and a bit more trashy), Rehoboth still has the charm of boardwalk bars full of salty sea air, beach cottages in leafy neighborhoods, and of course the Paratrooper ferris wheel at Funland. 

I must admit, this castle is not our creation

Last week, NS & I crossed the ocean for our annual family getaway in Rehoboth. We quickly adapted to the beach lifestyle - slow, leisurely days followed by casual family dinners and wild.... or maybe not so wild nights. Admittedly, the wildest it got was our Dragon lair cab ride home from seeing Citizen Cope at the Bottle & Cork (self=proclaimed "The Greatest Rock 'n Roll Bar in the World"). This station wagon cab's roof was covered with parking cones shaped like dragon spikes with the following words across the window - "Enter this really gnarley dragon wagon if you dare." Cabs are surprisingly scarce at the beach, and so we did enter, and made it home in one piece, albeit brains cluttered with some of the dirtiest jokes I've ever heard. 

We enjoyed all the classic beach foods> Kohr Bros ice cream on the boardwalk (despite my sister's insistence that it mysteriously doesn't melt) >Thrasher's french fries (since 1929), soaked in vinegar > Grotto Pizza > smoothies from Greenman (one of the few healthy things we ate the whole week); and the Rehoboth Farmer's Market, full of delicious goodies straight from Deleware's farmlands.

The week was truly wonderful, but flew by far too fast and before we knew it, we were on our way back to Sweden. But there was one last party: celebrating this amazing woman, my grandmother's, 100th BIRTHDAY!!!! Dozens of relatives gathered, from all corners of the nation, to commemorate this milestone on what was named Louise Dodd Day in Maryland. How many people get to have a day named after them?!

Happy Birthday Grandmama! 

Ringing in 2010

Some people start their New Year with a health-kick. Or a work-out spree. Maybe a resolution to cut back on spending. We go swimming in the ocean. And this year we did it on a clear Sunday morning at a temperature of 21 degrees F.

For the last 6 years, this dive has been a tradition, a polar bear plunge of our own you might say. Most years we actually do it in late December, sometimes just before Christmas or just after. We drive down to Rehoboth Beach early in the morning. It's usually on a weekday, and the 2-lane roads winding through the brown frosty farms are empty, as is the beach once we get there. I love the retreat of winter months by the sea.

We head to Rehoboth Avenue, driving to the end for our first glimpse of the flat infinity that awaits us. It's always cold - there's no getting around that - but some years looking out at the ocean, we think is this really a good idea?  maybe we should come back next week instead....

But no one ever said it's a good idea to jump in the ocean in the dead-middle of winter. That's not why we do it.  We are chasing a rush, a feeling of exhilaration. Even the breathless run back to the car, lungs stinging with every inhale - there's something about it that draws us back every time. There have been years when we go in twice, dragging our bodies out and then hurtling them right back in again.

This year Allie went in a second time. Jennie's hands were so numb after the first plunge that they couldn't hold onto anything. And my excuse was my barefoot run back to the car after the first dip - I mistakenly thought it would be better to get back sooner to what little warmth there was rather than take time to pull on my Uggs. My feet literally felt like they were going to fall off, those hundred meters never felt so long.

We stayed overnight at the Delaware Inn on Delaware Avenue this time. The alarm I set never went off in the morning, but we made it to the beach by 8. The only person in sight was a man walking his dogs along the shore. We stripped in the car to just our shoes and coats over our swimsuits, and made our way down to the sand. I despise being cold, and if I were to stand on that sand long enough, I probably wouldn't go in the water at all. Even in the summer I have a hard time taking the plunge. So I use my "lifeguard technique": I pretend someone is drowning and I have to save them this very second. The technique works - in both summer and winter.  And at least in the winter, the icy water keeps my mind off my feet pounding the painful stones on the ocean floor.

We were in the sea for maybe 2 seconds, and out again. On the drive back to the Inn, the tingling of the cold eased up and the warm shower brought back feeling to my toes. For the next couple days, I had an itching in my throat and felt a cold coming on - but it was completely worth it.