Pictures of My Vacation And It's Okay if You Leave the Room While the Slideshow Is On

Two weeks of vacation is a long, long time. Not that I"m complaining! I just always forget that I need to structure the second week somehow so it doesn't feel like I am on the wagon train that leaves at 9:00 every morning for the beach/bay/lake/whale watch/shopping/take me/take me/ take me/fill in the blanks. Actually, I had a good bit of empty nest syndrome this vacation, so I'm not complaining about the amount of stuff I did with The Little One, or with The Princess, when she arrived. The vacation felt like two vacations anyway, since my sister and her brood left after the first week and we moved to a different house.

The first house was a little run down inside. The Empress of All That is Clean (a/k/a my mom) was none too pleased by the condition of the bathrooms and kitchen. There was a stain on the ceiling from a leak over our bed, and the house didn't look like it had been dusted for the entire summer. It's not a good thing when you put your groceries in the cupboards and the potato chip bag sticks to the shelf when you grab it, starving from the beach. However, it had this lovely deck

We didn't want to complain but  we did because the Empress, also known as She Who Can Smell a Dirty Sock In the House Next Door, kept smelling gas, and after a day's investigation , we found open gas cans in the basement. Not wanting a Molotov Cocktail for dinner, we called the Realto,r and the owner, whom we found out lived next door, removed them and fixed the slider to the deck so the door didn't fall off whenever you tried to use it. The grunginess was compensated for by this incredible view that kept me mesmerized for hours on end.

The house had another perk that we've never experienced before. It came with its own dog.  That's Stan doing his FDR impersonation with my nephew and Dori The Rental House Pet. She was a very cute Golden Retriever who kept everyone entertained for two days, showing up each morning and hanging out with us on the deck. There was talk of dognapping her back home but her owner must have left after the weekend, because she didn't show up again. Bye Dori!

This is The Little One doing her best to guilt me into getting a dog for her since we had to give away her cat this summer. Not gonna work. Read my lips; no doggies! (Why do I see myself walking a very exuberant and strong puppy down our street in a binding snowstorm while The Little One hides inside her room with a sudden overload of homework??)