If you have to turn the big 5-0, you might as well soften the blow by doing it in France. So, that is what I planned and it worked. It really wasn't that bad.
I have spent the majority of my last few birthdays working at Camp Neyati in Alabama. Jeff is usually working in Bowling Green, so it has been his practice to call me about 10 times during the day to sing to me. He knows how much I love the birthday song. Since it cost so much to call, even with the international plan, he texted me instead every couple of hours. So sweet, but I missed hearing his voice sing "dear Ju-ya"
Mom took a couple of pictures of me before we headed out to the beach near Bordeaux.
The beach was really different from any other beaches I had ever seen. There were no high rise hotels or buildings of any kind, at all. The beach had really fine brown sand and was very wide. there were several huge concrete structures that looked as if they had just fallen there. They had square openings with iron doors that resembled jail doors on them. They were covered in grafitti. Mom and Kurt had walked on up ahead while Kathy and I stayed back a bit so we could do something sneaky. (I'll never tell) Mom heard us laughing hard and she said she knew what we were up to.
See how far on shore these things are?
What are these things?
We walked a long way down the beach to find a place where the waves crashed onto the shore, then we set out our towels and made ourselves comfortable. We laid back, closed our eyes, and listening to the waves hit the shore, we soaked up the sun. After about 10 minutes, Kathy said "I hear water!". We all opened our eyes and saw that the ocean was upon us! 30 seconds later and we would have lost our car keys and cell phones to the ocean. We jumped up, grabbed our water logged belongings and headed WAY back. We wondered if the other people on the beach had been watching us, waiting, then laughing at us, the ignorant foreigners. The waves and undertow were strong. This time, taking our cue from them, noticing that no one else was in the water, we decided not to go in too deep.
Then the ocean covered them, and nearly us.
Even deeper still...
It was fun being on the beach with my mother and sister.It reminded me of the old days, only this time, one of Mom's girls was 50! 
What posers we are
After getting our fill of sand and sun, we packed up and drove past Bordeaux to wine country. Most of the family owned vineyards sell their products in their elaborate barns, however, we were late and most were closed. Kurt did buy a bottle of Chateau Julia for me for my birthday. Don't know if I'll ever drink it, but I love it.
We used the GPS to find an Italian restaurant for my birthday dinner and followed the directions to a questionable looking place. While sitting there trying to decide if we should chance it, we noticed several locals stopping by to pick up take out. Taking that as a good sign, we went in but were escorted outside to eat, which ended up being very nice. It was really good food. I had the vegetarian lasagna which was served in the dish right out of the oven. It boiled in the bowl for a long time.
It was a three hour drive back home to Baran. All in all, a beautiful way to turn 50.
No comments:
Post a Comment