Musings
an Online Journal of Sorts

By Alyce Wilson

The wetlands

Day Four: Wetlands Hippie (Tuesday, July 27)

We woke up to bright sun and warmth for a second day. But I realized when I looked in the mirror that my careful plans of getting a base tan had been insufficient. You see, I knew my bathing suit basically had a tank top, so I figured if I wore similar shirts while walking my dog, I'd have enough of a base tan that, between that and SPF 30, I'd have no problems at the beach.

However, none of my tank tops were apparently as low cut as my bathing suit. So while I was fine on my shoulders, neck and back, I was definitely red in the chest area. I thought it would be a bad idea to go back on the beach and risk further damage.

So instead, The Gryphon and I walked downtown with my brother and his wife. We ran an errand for my sister, who had forgotten to mail a parking ticket. We promised to secure sufficient postage and mail it for her.

I thought that I remembered where the post office was, having been downtown only the night before and pointing it out to my sister. But I'm kind of like Einstein, except without the genius. He didn't remember things that weren't useful to him. I hadn't counted on needing to know where the post office was, after pointing it out to my sister.

But I got us within a couple blocks, and when I realized we were on the wrong street, I had us turn the corner. A couple blocks later, we managed to find it.

By this point, my brother and his wife decided they actually would go to the beach, so The Gryphon and I browsed the stores ourselves. We stopped at the hippie store, Zebop, to look at the clothing. Much of their summer clothing was on sale. I wanted to replace some of the hippie clothes I had just given away to my brother's wife.

As I tried on clothes, the store owner chatted with us. He saw my Philadelphia Folk Festival shirt and asked if I was going this year. I said I wasn't but told him that I liked some of the bands I'd seen last year, including Loudon Wainwright III. He knew who he was.

The staff were very helpful, probably because they weren't terribly busy. One female employee offered to grab extra things for me if I wanted her to. I didn't take her up on it, because I didn't like the idea of yelling my size out to a room, however empty.

At the end of it all, I had to make some decisions. I'd found two skirts, both violet. One was a breezy peasant skirt, the other silky and straight cut. I'd also found two embroidered tops, one blue and one green, both on sale. I couldn't decide which one to get. The Gryphon, seeing my dilemma, offered to buy one of them for me.

As we stepped up to the counter to pay, the store owner joked that he had some "Stone Harbor glasses." He grabbed a pair of shades and turned his head while he put them on. When he turned back, we saw that they had huge sparkling dollar signs. "Where'd you park the Beamer?" he asked in a haughty voice.

I giggled and told him that we'd had no luck finding stores in town until his. "We're here with my family," I said.

"Why here?" he asked.

Good question. Actually, my mom found Stone Harbor last year when she took a beach vacation on her own. I suppose she doesn't care if she does any shopping.

We'd promised a friend, The Cousin, that we would stop at an ice cream stand in town. She and her family visit Stone Harbor every year and love the ice cream. I had banana peanut butter cup, one scoop, and it was huge.

When we got back to the beach house, my sister was back from the beach. She wanted to go downtown to get some coffee at a coffee house we'd discovered the night before. I should have mentioned it. The coffee house was one of those homey little affairs with couches and stuffed chairs and tables, along with live jazz. We'd had iced coffee and listened to a trio (bass, drum and vocals) for awhile.

Today, I got an iced mocha for me and an iced coffee for The Gryphon. My sister and her fiancé got coffee freezes, which were like coffee slushies, I suppose.

When we got back, we were talking about ideas for something to do together as a family. Everyone was back from the beach, and we had a couple hours before dinner. We talked about seeing a lighthouse on another part of the island but decided there wasn't enough time to do that before dinner. However, we did have time to visit the Wetlands Institute, just outside of Stone Harbor.

Mom, Dad, my sister, my brother, The Gryphon and I split into two cars and drove over. In my car, I was playing Los Straitjackets. My brother loved it and said it was appropriate. I agreed.

We all paid for admission and took a walk around. We had to go slow, because Mom has problems with her knees. But slow was a good way to see the wetlands, anyway, because the slower you were the more birds and wildlife you'd spot.

First, we visited the nature center, which had aquariums with turtles and fish. The children were all gathered around the turtles, so you couldn't get close to them. But some of the fish posed for pictures, though the seahorses moved too fast for my camera.

Once we left the science center, we walked on a path through the wetlands themselves. We discovered little numbered cages periodically on the path. These marked turtle eggs. They apparently like to lay them on sandy areas, such as the pathways, so this protects them from humans and other animals.

Mom told us that this was the place where, when she was a graduate student at Rutgers, she had helped with a study at one of the islands there. They had been studying the seagulls to take some conservation measures, for fear they would soon lose their habitat due to encroaching development.

The birds, unaware the studies were to help them, used to pelt the scientists with rotten eggs and clamshells. We walked out one pier that had clearly been claimed by the seagulls. Several sat around, checking us out. We joked that they recognized Mom and were saying, "We thought we scared her off 30 years ago. What's she doing back?"

I took some pictures of everyone, including a great picture of my brother. It shows you how tan he gets in the summer. He was always several shades darker than my sister or I, who have paler coloring. I used to get jealous until I realized it was genetics and there was nothing I could do about it.

I also got a nifty picture of an overturned boat, which provided a nice contrast to the blue sky and the green wetlands.

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When we got back to the main building, we browsed the gift store. Both my brother and sister got presents for their other halves, who had stayed home. I got myself an inexpensive dolphin necklace made out of mother of pearl. Dad got Mom a watercolor of the wetlands for her birthday.

We returned to the beach house, where my sister and her fiancé made grilled barbecue chicken and an eggplant casserole. It was nice enough out on the deck that we could sit there and eat.

Then everyone was going downtown for ice cream. I said I'd go along, even though I didn't think I could eat another cone by myself. The Gryphon offered to share one with me. We walked downtown and he and I shared a scoop of peanut butter cup ice cream.

Afterwards, we all browsed at the Five and Dime. My sister and I bought goggles to use in the ocean the next day, to prevent salt water from being splashed in our eyes. Then we meandered over to an arcade, where I played a racing game with my brother, Dad and The Gryphon. I actually came in second, which surprised me because I thought I was behind everyone else. It turned out I'd lapped them.

On the way home, we stopped in a few more jewelry stores looking for the necklace my sister envisioned to go with her wedding gown. We even tried a few antique stores, since she wanted an antique look, but had no luck.

Back at the beach house, we played Spongebob Squarepants Uno. It's like regular Uno except it has a special Spongebob cards, and the Spongebob characters are on all the action cards. I was accused of being mean to The Gryphon simply because he sat next to me and bore the brunt of all the action cards.

Now, while he was the first one to leave the game, I was still nowhere near first place. In fact, my brother won. It seemed fitting, since it was his game.

As Spongebob portended, more rain was on the way. But I would get a chance to use my goggles before The Gryphon and I left for Baltimore and Otakon.

More from my Summer Vacation:

August 3, 2004 - Rainy Arrival

August 4, 2004 - The Poopdeck

August 5, 2004 - The Beach at Last

August 9, 2004 - Intermittent Fun

August 10, 2004 - Overture to Otakon

August 11, 2004 - Delicious and Good Day

August 12, 2004 - Costumes and Tuxedos

August 13, 2004 - Grand Finale

August 16, 2004 - Denouement

August 20, 2004 - More Vacation Pics

Copyright 2004 by Alyce Wilson

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