by laura beth

Today Kenny and I walked to Holy Ghost Orthodox Church down the street from Julie and Bill's apartment. HGOC is part of the American Carpatho-Russian Orthodox Greek Catholic diocese. I'm not completely sure what that means, but it was a pretty church and nice service. They celebrate the Divine Liturgy of St. John Chrystostom like other Orthodox Christian churches, but it was interesting to observe the little differences between Holy Ghost and Saint Barnabas. I am totally biased because I love Saint Barnabas, but I did notice that there seems to be more interaction and singing at Saint B. So I left HGOC feeling a little meh.


After church, we went to the shore with Julie and Bill. The weather couldn't have been more perfect. Neither Kenny nor I have ever spent time on the east coast (other than a trip I took Boston in 1996), and we probably don't have much a feel for what it would mean to live here, but without a doubt I tell you that I would trade the California beaches for the Jersey shore any day. Maybe it was the weather or the company or the particular beach we went to (Julie grew up spending the last few days of summer in Ocean City and said it's nicer than other beaches), but I soooo enjoyed our day at the beach.

First on the list was Mack & Manco's pizza. Best ever. Shhhh. Don't argue. Best ever. After, we just walked the beach for a long while, nicely exfoliating our feet. We saw Bill's brother Dave's doppelganger on the beach and tried to sneakily take a photo of him. Bill saved a lady bug from the tide. He held her most of the time while she dried out her wings. We walked the boardwalk keeping our eyes out for the most terrible tattoos. Green, white, and red Italy-on-a-shoulder? Barbed wire cross? Silly chest tattoo accentuating male nipples? Nope, I think the pair-of-eyeballs tramp stamp won. Kenny and I slurped up a Banana Whip from at the Bashful Banana-a couple frozen bananas, frozen blueberries, and frozen strawberries ran through a juicer, topped with all-fruit fudge! Amazing. It's pretty much the consistency of frozen yogurt. Dense, sweet, 100% fruit! Then the four of us got yummy fries and lemonade at Curly's Fries. Oh, and we ran into Mr. Peanut. He's a lot shorter than I imagined. Also, I think he might be a woman. As the shadows grew long, we made whooshy sounds with our feet in the sand. I love friends and beautiful days.