Vacation Post #1: Getting There Is Half The Fun

5AM is too early to start anything let alone something good, like a vacation. Yet the alarm dutifully sounded loud and clear at 5AM signaling the "official" beginning of our holiday.

In a rare moment of advanced preparedness, Salena and I managed to get most everything packed the night prior. Unfortunately moving our bags from our apartment to the car at 6 o'clock in the morning was a soggy affair! The foul weather that flooded the Mid-Atlantic* had settled on New York City bringing horizontal rain and Amazon Rain Forest-like humidity.

At 7:03 we turned onto the Triborough Bridge and our 560 mile drive was underway. In terms of timing, it was a great drive. We got out of NYC before rush hour began in earnest and hit little traffic en route. However, US Highway 13 and US Highway 17 are dreadfully boring and make up most of the drive. Mostly two lane highways which slow to 35 miles per hour through the "cities" (and I use that term VERY loosely) they intersect and actually have stop some lights. Highways aren't supposed to have stoplights!

Some 12 hours later, starving, exhausted and in dire need of a stiff drink we arrived at the beach house we've rented. We were the first to arrive so we naturally dumped our stuff in one of the nicer rooms and busted out the Bombay Sapphire. Ahhh, what a little juniper can do to restore the road-weary!

The rental house is darling and very nicely appointed. Better still is the back porch which overlooks the ocean. Absolutely fabulous.

This morning I got in my first run on the beach - about 6.5 miles at an 8:20 minute pace which is a bit slow for me but given the heat and wicked humidity I'm not too bothered by this. Plus, running on the beach is hard, the soft sand provides no energy return but it is much more forgiving on the joints than concrete. We'll see how the rest of the week goes. For now, I am off to do... well... perhaps a bit of nothing!

*Interesting footnote with regard to the poor weather.