There are always the last minute items but I can finish those in the morning. I had to pack around the dogs.I threw them off guard by doing laundry all day and reorganizing my closet so they didn’t get disturbed the piles of clothes. Of course, we woke up this morning to the sound of George’s stomach in revolt so he knew something was up. He spent the day eating grass every time we went outside and finally after a good run in Beatrix Park, he was his usual self for dinner except 3 times as hungry.

Yesterday, we went to the beach at Ijmuiden. There is a section of the beach that allows dogs all year long. Most beaches are off limits to dogs between the hours of 10am and 7pm during the May to October season. We took Eliza with us and had a good time. It was almost 96 degrees. And even Henry went in the water voluntarily. However, we were not in the dog beach area but no one gave us any trouble and we had the plan to let Eliza do the talking if the beach police came by.

There are a lot of invisible boundaries here. For example, the mysterious line where the beach is dog okay and where it is not. There’s no sign, you just end up looking for other dogs once you get to the landmark of the Beach Inn. There’s also no sign alerting you that you have crossed into the naturist area of the beach. The first sign you get is someone walking in front you out of the sea wearing only seawater. Which, like any sensible person, you just look only at their eyes and say Hello and keep on going! You also hope that they are going to ignore your dogs.

It is raining now, which is great. The temperature has dropped to 76 which seems very nice in comparison. I have finished up almost everything regarding household chores. I haven’t done much grocery shopping, knowing I would be gone so the past week has seen some really creative meals as I was only using what was in the house. I am not really sure that I am mentally ready for the enormous plates of food that they serve in the US. I have a feeling that Atlanta is all about abundantly large portions. And of course, sweet tea. Ick. I think I will pick tomorrow as the day to start a detox fast 😉

I don’t think I will sleep well tonight. My mom always used to give me a hard time about it. The night before I travel I am wide awake or as she used to put it so kindly “you put your girdle on the night before”. And I won’t sleep on the plane either to make up for it. It will be fine, I am just going to practice meditating. But of course, not in an overt way that might make a fellow passenger uncomfortable and lead them to looking for a flight attendant.

Time to go charge up all the electronics so they can go on the plane with me tomorrow. When I write next, it will be from the land of sweet tea, bless their hearts…