I am a lucky woman. I get to live where so many others only get to vacation! My home in Barnegat is located on a beautiful lagoon, and with just a few minutes of effort, you can kayak out into the bay. My favorite kayak trip, every year, is my first one of the season. So last night I grabbed the offspring and her BFF and headed out into the bay. Richie was working and couldn’t go, but I will be dragging him out later this week.

I SUP’d (Stand Up Paddle) and the kids paddled together on one kayak. I got too tired about 20 minutes in (it’s amazing how out of shape I get in the winter) and had to flip up the seat to sit and paddle. I love that first trip out to the bay. What changed over the winter? What did time and weather take away or add to the landscape? We lost the duck blind by our favorite little marsh.

We gained some really awesome chunks of drift wood on our little beach. What are the birds up to? No Osprey nest on our platform, yet. But I’m hopeful that this will be the year we get one (I so want one to watch). All the birds were noisy last night! What does this year’s crop of seaweed look like? I don’t know why, but some years it’s grass. Some years it’s fluffy. Some years it’s lettuce-like. This year we have the fluffy variety. No jelly fish yet (knock on wood).

This girls beached their kayak and explored the beach and the marsh. They picked up some trash and searched for mermaid’s purses (sting ray egg pods) but found none. They laughed, they giggled, they explored, they climbed a tree. They are almost 12-years old, and I started to wonder how many more years they would find such simple pleasure in things like this. God, I hope forever (for their sake and mine)!

I sat on my kayak and floated around, took pictures and just enjoyed the setting. They photo bombed me when I started taking selfies (and then we set-up a photo bomb on purpose–which I guess makes it no longer a photo bomb).

We always see something new. Last night was no exception… there was a forest fire about 8 miles in-land (I had heard a news alert because it closed down Rt. 72) and you could see the huge plume of smoke over the water.

So summer feels like it’s just getting started. How do I know for sure? Because the night ended with the application of bug-bite ointment and aloe for a twinge of sun burn.