If You Smell Sand At The Store…

…you might need a vacation.

If the thought of even speaking to another human, gives you the office version of road rage, you might need a vacation. And if you get weepy at the thought of your neighbors having spent the whole summer at their beach condo, while the farthest you’ve gotten has been to the water fountain at the local dog park…you definitely need a vacation.

I know I do. Our last trip was to Las Vegas back in May, and it seems like centuries ago. Las Vegas is everything they say it is, but mostly over-the-top.

I want the kind of vacation where the most taxing thing you have to think about is how to work the coffee maker in your rented beach house. And that is our plan….in freaking September!

Why Fall for a summer get-away? That’s when our beach destination is its most glorious…no kids, no crowds…and no jellyfish in the ocean. (Sometimes that means no restaurants either, the waiters have all left for college.)

But I don’t care…and I don’t care that we’re only headed 2 hours south on the parkway to Long Beach Island, New Jersey.

Because our state lives with the stigma of being a big refinery (no thanks to Bruce Springsteen) visitors steer clear, and miss some of the most pristine beaches, and cleanest waters in the country.

So, only a few more weeks of work, worry and endless dog hair to clean–and then I’m off with hubby and Trotter– to our house by the sea, clams on the half shell, the last of the Jersey tomatoes, dinner at sunset–and the pure, white sand of LBI.

I think I just heard a seagull…maybe not, that was just the swivel of my office chair.

…meet me tonight in Atlantic City.