Jersey Shore

No, there's no Snookie and no Situation. But, it was two teenage girls on the loose at the beach, with a single parent trying to keep the whole thing under control. Relaxation, or a recipe for disaster?

If you know our girls, then you know the answer. We are blessed with daughters who on the whole are good people who we don't have to worry too much about. Yes, they can be a pain in the ass sometimes, but we've seen other kids their age and we are grateful for the ones we have.

Katrina loves Wildwood, and has been going there every summer for as long as she can remember. I can pretty much turn her loose, and she knows where everything is and where to come back to. Courtney was just there a week ago on a day trip, but hasn't had a vacation at the beach for a few years. This would be the most time by far that our girls have spent together, and the first time they'll be out together by themselves, if that came to pass.

It did.

We spent our arrival day walking the boardwalk and spending rolls of quarters in the arcades, then the girls took off without Dad that night. The next day we spent on the beach until the rain chased us away, then we took a drive to Cape May and boarded the boat for a dolphin-watching ride around the cape. While flirting ruthlessly with a cute teenage deckhand, Katrina got the same blessing that Courtney had the day before: shat upon by a seagull! The nice deck boy ran off to get a paper towel, and Katrina somehow survived the embarrassment.

The next day, we got ride passes for the amusement piers, and rode all the roller coasters and what not. Katrina and Dad did the Sky-Coaster thing, where they hoist you up halfway to the moon and let you swing like Superman from a cable. Courtney, in her words, chose to "watch from a safe distance." We had a nice seafood dinner, and this time Dad met up with the girls on the boardwalk later on.

Not that we were expecting anything different, but it was good to get the kiddies together and let them do their thing. As much as KevAndDonna were clearly meant for each other, having kids that disapprove of us, or snipe at each other, would make a good thing more difficult on a day-to-day basis. But that is not the case. We really have it good, don't we?