Friday started out great !
Warm, sunny, filled with promise.

The first warning sign should have been that we could nto figure out what to do for breakfast.

Warning sign number 2: about 2 miles in to the drive, we realized that "I" forgot the beach tags.
Ummm, when did it become MY sole responsibility to remember the tags?

Decided to go to AC beach (because it is free) rather than drive back to the house.

Found a FREE parking spot on the street (Warning sign number 3).
We parked, walked up the boardwalk, over the dune and were greeted with the most god-awful stench (Warning sign number 4).
The stench is the result of a HUGE abnormal wave of mussels being washed ashore all along the beaches.
The local marine experts can not explain the enormous amounts of "baby" mussels that have been washed ashore. They suspect it was a storm at sea.
At any rate, it stinks.
But the seagulls love it-- it's like a free casino buffett -- all day/all free.
We normally go to Margate/Ventnor City (where the aforementioned tags are from). The stench there was present during the week before. It seems to be working it's way down the coast line.

If you were down wind, and for the most part, if you were lucky, it wasn't TOO bad. Thank god we all had beach shoes/water shoes. The crunch crunch crunch of walking across the shells to get to the water was awful.

We used our new umbrella.
We saw lots of dolphins -- and the lifeguards were moving folks AWAY from them -- the lifeguard boat even rowed over towards them to separate them from the swimmers (umm, hmmm, yeah, that works).
It was a lovely day.

da-dum
da-dum
da-dum da-dum da-dum da-dum (insert Jaws music).

Crisis approaches.

We pack up our stuff and head back to the car.
As always, I trail the pack.

Final Warning sign:
They are both standing by the car as I approach with my bags etc.
Key is missing.
Not the key chain -- only ONE key is missing.
The car key.
Somehow it wiggled off the key chain.
They trace our steps back and forth.
I look up and down the boardwalk ramps etc.
No luck.
Oh, and did I mention, we ALL forgot our cell phones?

Good sign: if we can get in the car, there is a set of keys, including house keys that are in the glove box.

Car service is called.
We put out chairs BACK up and sit on the sidewalk, much to the stares of passersby.
An hour later, here comes the truck.
In 5 minutes we are in the car and on the way home.

After much laughter and cleaning up, we headed to Red Lobster for dinner (it's my week).
Great talipia -- just a tad too much salt in their blackening spices, though