Vacation in the works, perhaps

My friends and I are tossing around the idea of heading out on a vacation. Even as I type these words, they are hard at work scanning nearly-identical ads, looking for a place that meets our criteria for location, spaciousness, comfort, availability, and price. I bugged out early because I had an errand to run and I wanted to get to bed. And write this post.

If everything works out, in about two months I will either be just leaving for or just returning from a trip to the New Jersey shore. This will be my first trip there in 10 years. In the intervening decade I have been to several beaches in the Los Angeles area (all during a single trip, most of them in a single day; Venice Beach and Hermosa Beach stick in my mind), I have watched and listened to the ocean from several different condos in Cocoa Beach, Florida, and I have looked across the Atlantic back towards America from a beach on the southwestern coast of Ireland.

But there is something special about going to the beach for the explicit purpose of going to the beach. Having your brains baked by the sun and your ears lulled by the sound of waves isn't quite the same as the visual and auditory experience of a dance floor, but it comes close. The olfactory experience is different, though - one is of sulfurous odors and salt air, the other is of pheromones, sweat, perfume, and smoke. I'll leave it to you to sort out which is which.

By the time the middle of August rolls around I will be badly in need of a vacation, anyway. If I don't go to the beach, I may just head off into the woods or the mountains, quite possibly ranting and raving. Luckily for me, the woods and mountains are just a few hundred yards from my front door, so it won't be a long trip. I may simply take some time off and rant and rave at home.

Now, where can I find some sufficiently tacky Hawaiian shirts and a nice Panama hat? And I wonder if I should think about taking some acrylics to the beach (on a stay-wet palette, of course), or maybe get some colored pencils or oil pastels? Or maybe just take a camera? Or a writing pad? Or maybe Bill Clinton's new book? Or...