We were planning on staying here at the beach until tomorrow morning, but tropical storm/hurricane Hanna has other plans. Everyone who’s not currently posting on this blog is engaged in packing a week’s worth of life in the beach house.  Well, Randy’s listening to DJ John on his MacBook Pro. And Dameon’s cooking. And Liam and Nate are eating pizza in front of ‘Bob the Builder’. Okay, so hardly anyone is actually packing. But we’re all supporting those who are packing, even if only peripherally.

My sister, Leah, just left with her two boys, Parker and Alec. She claims that she travels with a black cloud, and whether you believe her or not, it was raining when she arrived last Saturday, and didn’t start again until roughly the time she began packing her car to leave this morning.

Soon, we’ll be eating the late lunch that Dameon’s fixing, and then we’ll all take a step back toward our individual lives in Maryland, DC, and in my sister’s case, Georgia. Although she’s already stepped.

Yesterday, I sat in the late-afternoon sand as Jill threw Wheat Thins (reduced fat) over my head to the hovering seagulls. The boys, Nate especially, laughed and clapped and chased the birds, which always seemed to be able to stay at least one wing ahead of them.

“I need to run back to the house and get my wide-angle lens. These are some good pictures passing us by.” I said, already heading towards the angled stairs up the dunes.

“Right,” Jill remarked with a wry smile, “Because you can’t take them tomorrow, when we’re back out here.”

“Tomorrow is promised to no one!” I called back jauntily.  

And then this morning, the forward edge of Hanna arrived, bringing with her heavy rains, and sending the gulls to wherever gulls go during tropical storms that may or may not develop into hurricanes.

Dameon’s lunch was excellent, and at the end of it, there was warm-from-the-oven pumpkin pie topped with Breyer’s, which went over very well with the boys.

During those dark days in March when my sister and I sat in our father’s room in Hospice and said our long goodbyes, one of the things we talked about was this trip. And now Senior is gone, my sister is on her way home, and our time at the beach is almost done.

Now Randy’s just left, and it’s almost time for us to go too.

Everything ends… parents and trips and time with friends and even ice cream, sitting on the top of warm pumpkin pie.