What in the name

of all things vacation have we been thinking all of these years?  As you have surmised, I finally convinced Peter that we should rent a vacation home for our week in Chincoteague this year.  Actually, let me rephrase:  we can afford a whole week in Chincoteague, because we are not paying a hotel a mortgage payment for 5 nights squished in a tiny room.

WHY didn't we try this sooner?!

At this very moment, Peter and I are relaxing to a bit of HGTV while all children are nestled snug in their beds.  We managed to find a 3 bedroom, so Cait has a queen bed to herself and Nicholas and Kelsey each have their own twin bed in the second bedroom.   Now there's no maid service or a pool, but we can live with that given:

• It is SO quiet.  No one running up and down the hallways, no one above us stomping around at the crack of dawn, no one getting ice at 6 a.m.  Awesome!
• No worries about getting out of the room for the maid.  I love housekeeping service as much as the next person, but there is something not so relaxing about them banging on the door at 8 a.m. when you really just want to sleep because you are on VACATION.  Sure we have to tidy up after ourselves, but I think we can swing that.
• Eating what we want, when we want it.  The fridge is stocked with Skyr, healthy lunch stuff and we have plenty of bagels, bread, oatmeal, Elmo brekist and the like.  No worries about missing the 'free' breakfast or even worse, dealing with no one (myself included) liking it very much.  That bushel of crabs?  No worries, we can spread out at the dining room table…mallets included with the house!

We have only been here one day, but we all managed to sleep in, have a leisurely breakfast, enjoy a yummy lunch from Woody's and spend most of the afternoon at the beach.  Dinner was courtesy of Pete (grilled potatoes & corn) and Gary Howard Seafood (a dozen steamed crabs and shrimp).  We finished off the evening with a round of golf, a quick go-round on the go-karts (for Cait) and a trip to Mr. Whippy.

It's hard to believe we still have 5 fun-filled days to go…hikes, the carnival, fireworks, more beach time, and a trip to the lighthouse.  Plenty of time to fit it all in and plenty of relaxation time left over. 

( Pictures coming as soon as the internet cooperates….)