I blame it on my mother
My mother as a teenager at Rehoboth Beach, DE
I’ve been going to the beach before I was even in a thought in her mind so it was inevitable that one day I’d end up with a passionate love for it. My mother started going to the beach with her mother when she was a teenager. My grandmother had a family friend who owned a house in Rehoboth Beach, DE. She would go there with her friends, eventually bringing my mother who would in turn go down with her friends. Then they started brining my sister and me.
My grandmother, my sister and me (7 months old) at the beach house in Rehoboth Beach, DE
When I was in 3rd grade my grandmother decided to buy her own beach house. She chose a house in Lewes, DE that sat right on the bay where the beach was literately the front yard. I wasn’t thrilled about it at first because I liked being close to the boardwalk in Rehoboth but in time it grew on me. I learned to love this old house and all its little quirks as well as the surrounding town.
My grandmother’s beach house on Bay Ave. in Lewes, DE
I remember going to the beach at least three times a year, Memorial Day weekend, one week in the summer and Labor Day weekend. As we got older my grandmother felt that the family didn’t come to the beach house enough and she decided to sell it, a decision she regrets to this day.
After the sale of the Lewes house I think my grandmother still had the beach bug so she rented out her house in Virginia and bought another house in Lewes but this time it was one row back from the beach. We visited a few times but once my sister and I started having families of our own the trips were less and less and my grandmother decided to sell this house as well and move back to her house in Virginia permanently.
For about 5 years the beach was non-existent in my life. After graduating high school I went straight into the workforce and once I got married and moved to Kentucky where my husband was stationed in the Army vacations stopped. They were now only spent coming home to see family back home in Virginia for the holidays.
After my husband’s time in the Army we relocated back to Virginia in 1999 and after about a year of getting our roots established, my stepfather invited us to stay at his brother’s beach house in North Carolina. I didn’t even know about beaches in North Carolina because I had always been to the Delaware Beaches. I remember thinking that it was going to be such a long drive but after that first trip I was hooked. We’ve been vacationing there ever since. Not only at my uncle’s house but we’ve stayed at other places in Hatteras, Frisco, Avon and Duck.
As you can see the beach is in my blood and has been a part of my life as far back as I can remember. I have so many wonderful memories of times spent at the beach. So many that this year I decided to finally compile all those memories and photos into one place, a journal that I call, “My Beach Chronicles”. Here on my blog is where you can read about it all. I’m going to share some of my favorite memories, pictures and all the things that remind me of the beach. I hope you’ll join me on the journey!
