"Yo-ho-ho...!"

We're off to the beach this weekend (and all next week) for some much needed rest and relaxation. Suzanne's parents retired to a quiet little island just off the coast of North Carolina. (And, by "just off", I mean exactly that. The bridge to the island is only a couple hundred yards long.) They built themselves a nice three-story house with lots of room for guests and we'll be staying with them in the apartment on the highest level. There's a nice balcony overlooking the water. Across the street, Suzanne's sister and her family will be staying in the 4-bedroom cottage the family has owned for decades and, in fact, built with their own hands. We usually stay there when we spend a week on the island but with two adults, two kids and a dog already there, we thought it might be a little crowded and not conducive to the kind of rest we need.

Suzanne's spent this week planning all kinds of fun things to do with the kids and some interesting menus she plans to try out on her family. Me? I'm doing absolutely nothing. I'm taking a stack of loot from the Heroes Con to read along with a handful of novels that have been piling up and a bunch of DVDs I haven't gotten around to watching. I don't expect to get through much of it (can't be TOO antisocial) but it will be nice to make any headway at all.

Then there's the rum. What's a trip to the beach without rum? A buddy of mine brought me a bottle of Appleton Estates back from Aruba when he went on his honeymoon. The rum's going with me (along with a 2-liter bottle of Coke) and one of us isn't coming back alive. I'm not much of a drinker, really, but there is nothing finer in life than sitting on that back porch before dinner, looking out over the water and enjoying the cool breeze blowing through your hair as you sip on a nice rum and coke. (Or two...or three...) The only thing that would make it more perfect would be a view of the sunset. Unfortunately, this is the Atlantic coast and if you want to see the sun go down, you have to face away from the water. The upside is, if you're up in time, you get to enjoy one hell of a spectacular sunrise with your morning coffee.

So, fair winds to ye, me buckos. I'm off wit' me first mate and me swag to the far off land of Harker's Island. And, if Elizabeth Swann has burned up all me rum when I get there, she'll kiss the gunner's daughter fer sure, begad!