Beach

What could be better than sitting on the porch overlooking the ocean enjoying the sun and gentle breeze. When I started planning this little adventure I wanted to go somewhere that held good memories for Mom and my sister Joan. Growing up in Baltimore, Ocean City Maryland was my beach of choice as a teenager and it beckoned me back. OC had all the right ingredients, it is a three hour drive from Mom's house, it has a good boardwalk for strolling and in mid-September the weather is usually cooperative for sitting on the beach. After some research I found the perfect place - ocean front, balcony with a great view from the eighth floor of a new condo building - and to top it off it is close to the inlet where Dad kept his boat. Mom had not been back to Ocean City since Dad died two years ago and was willing to give it a try.

I stopped in Richmond, picked up Joan and headed to Baltimore to pick up Mom and head out to OC. The trip went smoothly, the luggage fit in the car and the condo lived up to its promo.

Now we were ready for the challenging part - living together for a week. Don't get me wrong, we like each other, but we lead very different lives and we have never done something like this before. But how hard could it be, we are women after all. So what are the big challenges? Food is number one. What do we eat, what do we NEVER eat, what do we think the other person should or should not eat? Should we eat in, do take away or eat out? It took some juggling but we each chose what we wanted and when it overlapped it was great. Next challenge: eating in. What to have, how to cook it, who would cook it. We settled on one night of fish, one of chicken, one of pizza take away, and eating out twice. So far so good