Last Day in Paradise... (UPDATE at bottom...ghost pic.. explained)

It is coming to an end... I started a long blog that I called "Anatomy of a Beach Vacation"... but I need more time to finish it... or maybe I will abandon it as we roll out of Seaside in the morning... who knows.

The past three days have been wonderful... pretty much exactly the same as the first three... pure blissful relaxation... yummy dinners of chicken piccata... morning coffee on the balcony... and beach beach beach. Some highlights include seeing a pod of dolphins about 50 yards from the shore... then Mr. D. seeing one very close up... like 10 yards... A huge thunderstorm while eating on the patio... taking trick pictures with the timer... banana splits... our "taditional "toe pic"... watching kids play on the beach... flying kites... reading 3 whole books and 6 magazines cover to cover... all of it... it has just been incredible.

We leave you with a few more vacation pics... tomorrow after breakfast we will drive the 8 hours in to Houston... stay the night... meet with Ally (one of my best online buddies) for lunch and then drive the 4 hours home. We should be back to our puppy and 3 kitty babies by dinnertime on Monday. I am looking forward to sleeping in my own bed.

So the next time I write I will just be a normal gal writing from my regular old life... but the past 2 1/2 weeks have reminded me what is truly important in my life... and that is being a normal gal in my regular old life.

See you in a couple of days!

Since several of you were interested... here is how we did the "ghost" pic... We figured it out totally by accident... and then perfected the technique with about a zillion tries! Our camera has a "night" setting to take really beautiful clear pics at night (I'll post some cool landscapes in a couple of days) anyway.. it takes about 8 seconds to snap the pic once you have pressed the button.. so you have to use a tripod so the picture isn't blurry.... but we don't have a tripod... so we were just sitting it on chairs or tables to sabilize it... and during one of the 8 second waits Mr. D. walked in front of the camera... and there it was... the ghost!!! So we practiced using the timer, a chair, and walking to the center of the picture kissing and the backing out.... about 10 kisses later we got the hang of it... we came out with 2 really cool pictures... and a couple of creepy ones where I look normal and Mr. D. looks like a ghost because he walked away on time and I didn't... So that is it... totally by accident... and then we just repeated the accident until we got it right! Pretty cool for 2 nerds who know nothing about photography.

PS... we made it to Houston and will be home tomorrow... after lunch with Ally!