Labor Day party on the River

You’ve met Dianne in this blog before.  Most recently on a houseboat here in Long Beach Island.  And a few years ago at her house in Florida. 

 

Now you get to see her house on the river up here.  She invited us to come over for a Labor Day party.  Jimmy decided to go too even though, in 30 years of living here, he’s never left the Island on Labor Day.  Here’s why – all the thousands of people who came to LBI for the weekend, or the whole summer, are leaving that day:

 

But, we finally made it.  What a cool spot!  You see, in addition to the ocean and the bay, there are also rivers around here.  She is on the Mullica river, we paddled the nearby Batsto river when we were here in 2004.

 

What a great spot!

 

And, here’s our hostess showing off the view from her dining room.

 

Lots of clams to feast on – a local delicacy.

 

 

Here’s Dianne with her two daughters, Susan (left) and Carol (right):

 

It’s always good to get around families with kids.  The younger generation gives us a fresh perspective!

 

 

Here’s a view of the house from the dock.

 

Thanks Dianne!  We had a great time. 

 

and the traffic getting back onto the Island was non-existent!

Corned Ham Party

It’s tradition here at Jimmy’s house on Labor Day weekend.  See the post from 2004 for the story.

 

It was a 5-star day weather-wise on the island. Hot, sunny, great waves for body-surfing over at the ocean, and nice calm water on the bay.  We took advantage of all of it.

 

Even I got in the surf and let it put me thru the spin cycle.  Water temp was about 73, and the waves were perfect.  A few of them were big enough to grab you and toss you around, but they were all manageable.

 

Then we had some BLTs for lunch with scrumptious New Jersey tomatoes.  We played with the water in the bay for the rest of the day.  One of Jimmy’s old friends, who used to be a lifeguard here on the island is a master of the Stand Up Paddle board.  We had to try it.

 

Actually, Odie was the first to try – he just jumped right on and showed us how it’s done!  We told you our dog walks on water!

 

 

Then I tried it.  Believe it or not, these boards are inflatable!  So they have a little bit of give to them.  It took a few minutes to get my bearings, but then it was actually pretty easy.  At least on a flat calm day like this!

 

 

Then it was Jim’s turn.

 

 

They were really fun!  Chris K (who owns the boards) uses them to surf in the ocean.  Just, instead of laying down, he’s standing up all the time.  You can see photos of that on Jimmy’s web album.

 

Next up came kayaking!  Dianne and her daughter Carol came over for the party, and I took them out for a little bay tour on the kayaks first:

 

OK, now it’s time for the party.  The gorgeous weather held out the entire day, so all the festivities were outside.

 

 

Jim has to test the corned ham first!

 

Then there’s all the other dishes that people brought.

 

And even a soft-serv ice cream machine.

YUM

 

See lots more photos on Tom Pernal’s web album.

 

And then, to cap it off … you guessed it!  There was yet another beautiful sunset!

 

Those Darn Sunsets!

Jim and I talked about going out to dinner last night.  He knows that there are many excellent restaurants here on Long Beach Island, and we have yet to visit any of them this time around.

 

But then we looked out the window and said, ‘Nope, looks like it’s going to be a great sunset, we gotta stay home.’

 

We were right:

 

 

Will Work for Thank You Notes!

If we could take thank you notes to the store instead of cash or credit – we wouldn’t charge for any of our services!  This is *really* what we work for …

 

The latest note came in from Anita and Ron.  They thanked us for teaching them how to Blog.  Not only did they create a personal blog, but they also created a blog for their Square Dance Association.  They posted their note as a comment on our Geeks on Tour Articles blog so you can read it too!

 

We’re still having fun and enjoying beautiful weather here on the Jersey Shore, but Jim chained me to my computer yesterday and I finally got our monthly Geeks on Tour newsletter published (I still called it August’s newsletter :-), as well as our weekly Picasa Tip.

 

Jim keeps having to print more Picasa booklets to fulfill the orders coming in, and we’re also up to nearly 600 paid members for our online classroom of tutorial Videos.  So, we haven’t had to try to redeem our thank you notes for legal tender lately, but we sure do love getting them.

Life at LBI

In case you don’t know, LBI stands for Long Beach Island.  That’s where we are.

And, it’s a place to party in the summertime.  Staying with our friend Jimmy Lyon – we just slipped right into the round of parties.

 

We even met up with an old friend from Florida, Dianne, and her daughter, Carol who are spending some time on their houseboat right here on Long Beach Island.

 

 

 

Here’s how we look at photo albums:

 

Here’s the beach:

 

 

Then there’s a concert in the park – on the mainland:

 

And birthday parties at Jimmy’s:

 

And more parties at Jimmy’s:

 

 

And, dinner with best old friends’ of Jim’s – Tom and Betty:

 

We are  just having a great time.  The weather has been gorgeous – hot and sunny days with cool nights.  The food and friends have been overwhelming.

 

And, I thought we were going to have 3 quiet weeks to get caught up on work!  Is it any wonder that our Geeks on Tour August newsletter isn’t done yet?  Hopefully, no one will notice and I’ll get it done today.  It’s a little quieter here on the weekdays – many of the friends and family

come in for the weekend from other parts of New Jersey, Pennsylvannia, and even Boston.

 

Oh yeah … here’s another sunset for ya!