Jersey Shore, Sand, Summer!

FINALLY summer has arrived to the NYC NJ area!

Strawberry Popsicle = Summertime 

 Just one week ago I was shielding myself from the torrential rain dressed in my heavy winter wool coat and winter boots. This weekend? Off with the boots, the coat and the cold! The weather in the NYC area isn't known with the maternal name of "Mother Nature" it should really be called...I want to say Sara or Sarah because each one I have met is crazy in some way. But Mother Nature here isn't a Sara(h), she is more of a depressed, emotional, hyper-neurotic single (never married) woman that dresses erratically and cries, screams and dances way to easily. Mother Nature here should be called Auntie Nature, and she is a New Yorker with a lot of sass. Come to think of it, Auntie Nature reminds me of one of my aunts...Don't mess with Auntie Nature or she will dump hail, snow and 90 degree weather on you. Yes, she will! Well, this weekend Auntie Nature had a flared up menopausal heat wave and we thoroughly enjoyed it.

Some signs of summer are:

My "Sound of Music" outfit. The Hiiiiiills are Alive with the Sound of Muuusic....

Grandpa's cowboy hat has been finally hung. I think it was waiting for the summer. A cowboy does not like the cold.

Cold dinner = too hot to cook!

Wait, before I go into details of the fabulous day down-the-shore let me start with the reality. Chipotle. Have you heard of Chipotle? Well, in America (for those of you reading in China) Chipotle is a "healthy" fast food chain that makes delicious burritos, tacos, salads and guacamole.On Friday, I skipped over happily to Chipotle to order some beans and rice for a quick protein filled lunch. Hours later I was on my death-bed with food poisoning. Chipotle's food was contaminated and was killing me. It felt like someone put my intestines in the blender and set it on high. You get the point. I agonized on the couch with Bentley my fat old cat sitting on my stomach in sincere solidarity. He knew exactly which side of my belly hurt and sat on it in a very gentlemanly like manner with a look of concern. Bentley has had his fair share of hacking terrible hairballs and must have thought that I had an especially bad hairball.

"Doctor, my human has a bad hairball, give her some tuna fish!" Bentley, my sweet caring little old pud.

 I appreciated it. Fatty? He snored under the air conditioner grunting at times like a fat little pig. He is a fair weathered friend, that Fatty... My last few drops of energy started dripping away. My doctor finally made it to my house, hydrated me and sent me to bed with an empty and very sad stomach who will never be a patron of Chipotle again. The next morning I woke up feeling like a deflated balloon. I had a weak breakfast and slumped into the couch. My doctor came down the stairs dressed like a surfer and as fresh and optimistic as a watermelon bursting in a food fight and declared that he would carry me off to the Jersey Shore for some sun and vitamin D to soak into my food poisoned bones. Five bottles of water in the backpack and off we went. The drive down was so pretty. We passed a lot of horse farms. And who doesn't love a good horse on a sunny day? I wish I could have gotten a better picture of the horses, more on the lines of a galloping stallion or Black Beauty, but they were all looking a bit saggy from the heat and hiding in the shade.

The original Twitter. One day he vows to take back the tweet and have it be all his again.

Maybe a "Garden" will replace Twitter and people with Seed things rather than Tweet them. Or maybe humans are all slowly turning into zombies. That is more likely. 

Cavallo

The Jersey Shore was destroyed with Hurricane Sandy, sort of like my intestines with Hurricane Chipotle. I felt so proud of the towns we past, seeing how the residents have pulled together to rebuild the shore. We drove past Belmar where cars blare past with obscenely loud music, Snooki's hang out spot, and down towards Sea Girt, the more polished area of the Shore where retired Wall Streeters live clinking champagne glasses and eating burgers with forks and knives calling french fries "fritz".

Part of the boardwalk still being rebuilt

This is the real Jersey Shore. I know Governor Chris Christie is in one of those houses eating something delicious, I can just sense it! 

We parked the car on a large avenue under a shady tree and flip-flopped down to the beach. I flopped more than flipped. The shore was breezy, fresh and sweet. We hung out for several hours reading Italian gossip magazines, cook books and just watching the waves roll back and forth on the early summer sand.

Baywatch

Gioa magazine and Pesce cookbook make great napping reads.

These curls are more accurate than the weather channel. When the curls are perfect it means the day will be sunny and beautiful and fabulous. 

 I dug my toes in and out of the sand a million times, took a nap then woke up sun burnt and drove home feeling much better.

I'm glad we went to the beach, I'm glad it's no longer winter. Summer is here and we might as well start it totally detoxed and 5 pounds lighter. I should thank Chipotle in a way for the 1 hour 5 pound weight loss and my doctor and chef for the mineral, spa, pasta treatment.

Bath time for the cherries. After bath time comes snack time with  the cherries. Shhh...they don't know.

Schiaffoni con i ragu for lunch... mmmmm That is the right type of protein to go for!

 Next up?

One for you  one for me

All done. You can totally see who has an ascendant in Virgo.

Welcome to New Jersey dear Summer, stick around for a few months and don't bring us any hurricanes!