Moments, Part 2: One-Hundred Million Dollar Friends

I've started and deleted this post a hundred times. I can't figure out how to capture a really, really, really wonderful vacation with old friends, new friends and limitless ice cream bars (which were all calorie free because Doug told me that if I did the 'running-man' on the way to and from the fridge when getting one then I would work the calories all off).

But this post needs to be written so here I am two weeks later at my 101st attempt...

I remember my dearest moments as snapshots or still frames which capture feelings, images or experiences that make my heart happy. Two weeks ago I pulled away from an Outer Banks, NC beach house named "Crab's Day Off" (hey, I didn't name the house) with a new album of such moments including:

Wandering across Cathy sunning and sleeping on the beach with Sampson laying across her - sound asleep: true contentment.

Watching Marcus "the Kite Whisperer" Donaldson fly a kite for what seemed like the whole day - and good part of that day laying down on the beach while he flew it. And then kindly allowing us to win the weird German bean card game that night - when we all knew he had the game figured out and won midway through Round 1.

And speaking of games. Settlers - total silence coming from the kitchen table where Loren, Katrina, Allison and John picked up an age old battle over who truly is "Settler Master" and the total chaos two nights later when Cathy, a supposed novice, cleaned up at a game of poker where the high stakes were having to clean the kitchen if you lost. Oh, and remembering from past experiences that a serious player had better keep an eye on one "Run the River" Sarah Shaw.

Learning to build "drip sand castles" from John - who then gamely allowed us to turn him into a sand mermaid (which suited him quite well, I might add).

Spending Sunday evening listening to Loren play us all into a splendid stupor with his guitar and singing.

Watching Doug and Sampson dance the "Macarena" (in my professional opinion they executed the steps with great form).

Walking to the end of the beach (or till it got fenced off) with Allison , my dear fellow "life walker."

Gathering around the kitchen table to talk to a few of the smartest, strongest, funniest women I know - and talking through the "burning-eyes-sensation-because-I-was-so-tired" because I didn't want the conversation, or evening, to end.

Like the wise Jack Johnson says in song playing right now, "I've got a hundred million dollar friends" and shoes full of sand. Could a girl be any more lucky?

Thank you, dear, wonderful benefactors, Katrina and Doug--