A weekend with our friends...

We just got back from an awesome weekend at the beach with my best friend from forever ago, Hannah, and her husband Michael.

Things we learned this weekend:

1. When you cover wooden skimboards with old wetsuits, they work nearly as well as a $200 one from the store. I actually stayed up and was rather decent, for once, and both Hannah and Mike stayed up, too, even though it was their first day! Isaac and me, yes, we heart skimboarding.

2. Yurts are nice, even though it may not be classified as 'real' camping to some, because some nights it just pours and pours down rain and being in a tent in that kind of downpour could potentially make one slightly crabby.

3. Raccoons in campgrounds have absolutely no fear of mankind and will just stroll across your campsite towards your stash of food, or in Micheal's case, right into the open trunk of his car, in order to feed their hungry bellies. Could be due partially to the fact that certain unnamed campers threw the raccoons several fat marshmallows for their enjoyment, but no guarantees here. We may never know for sure.

4. They don't do small there, very well.

5. Oysterville is the cutest, quaintest, most picturesque little town ever.

6. Isaac and Michael are manly. Okay, I already knew that, but it was merely enforced when they insisted on making the fire with pure nature. And then they pulled out their plastic lighter from Target. Love it.

7. Old lighthouses are cool. So are the old men who stand in the top of them and barely even take breaths in their eagerness to spew as much knowledge about the lighthouses and anything remotely related to you as an onlooker. So are the old women who take the admission fees at the door who are positive I don't look a day over 17. As we left, she (no joke) shouted after me, "don't forget to grow up." Charming.

8. Hannah's obsessed with slugs. And snails. And large mushrooms with slugs and snails crawling on them. Apparently those things are a rarity back where she's from.

9. There is a horseshoe game manlier than the actual horseshoe game. It's called, "Throw the metal rod used for horseshoes in the air and see who can get theirs to land perfectly upright in the sand." Yes, ladies and gentlemen, it does appear that Michael is about to lacerate himself in the eyeball with his rod.

10. Waikiki is more fun than Long Beach.

11. Hannah made a great choice when she married Michael. He's a keeper, for sure.

12. Anything tastes better roasted over the open flame. Especially fire burritos. And marshmallows. And hot dogs. And chili. Although Mike's breakfast of champions on Sunday morning did give those dishes a little competition.

13. Apparently our anniversary is more important to other people than it is to Isaac and me as both of us completely forgot it was even our anniversary when we woke up Sunday morning, and Hannah was the one to remind us. But at least he did his hair for me. That was nice.

14. There are some friendships you make that come and go, and those bless your life for sure. But there are some friendships you make that will last until you're old and gray, sitting on the porch, rocking in your rocking chairs right next to each other, and that is the kind of friendship I have with Hannah. No matter the time that passes, the miles that are between us, the different lives we both lead, we will still call each other several times a day, know what the other is thinking before they even say it, and love each other 'till the day we die. Touching, I know.