"Best afternoon ever"

We were sitting outside at a blue picnic table, waiting for our burgers to arrive, when Selim said, "This has been the best afternoon ever.  Well, maybe the fourth or fifth best ever.  I'm not sure.  But it was great."

We got to Wallis Sands at 5:00 so that we wouldn't have to pay the entrance fee.  That was great in theory.  However, to discourage people like us who are trying to avoid paying, they are locking the gates to the parking lot at 6:00.  We had an hour.  And Selim made use of the 43 minutes he had in the water.

He ran right in, belly flopped, and came up sputtering.  Good thing he had on his goggles.

Then he came back for the board and rode in waves.  According to the local news, the ocean temperature is 60 degrees.  Without that wet suit, he wouldn't have lasted more than two minutes.  But with it, he was toasty and had such a good time.

I had fun documenting.

Part of what made the time so great, was that we were all there together, as a family.  Nedim's friend from Australia, who is here for a few weeks came along as well.

I hated getting him out of the water at 5:43, but we needed to be outside the gates by 6:00.  And, he has had a runny nose for the past few weeks, so limiting his time wasn't such a bad plan.  It took both Nedim and I holding him and tugging on the wet suit to get that thing off.  I don't know how I will manage when it is just Selim and I together.

From the beach, we went to a new (?) burger place on Route 1.  I had a veggie burger with avocado and salsa and a side order of sweet potato fries.  The guys got regular cheese burgers.  It was a great end to a really good day.

Earlier, I planted 80% of the garden.  I put in 24 tomato and cucumber seedlings.  I should have started the seeds earlier.  The seedlings are very small.  I hope that some of them, at least, will be successful bearing plants.  I left one row of black plastic un-planted.  I will pick up two zucchini and may be another, more mature, tomato plant or three.

I'm going to trust that some of my cucumber plants will survive.  I'm going to try having them grow up, around a cage and see if that helps the cucumbers ripen.  I saw that trick when I was walking in Washington, D.C. two summers ago.  Growing up on a trellis-type thing, the plants took up less space and the fruit got better sun.  We shall see.

The peas have reached their fence.

And the strawberries are ripening.

And I have enjoyed salad made of lettuce thinnings for a few days now.  I love having a garden!