Last Rays of Summer

The carefree and spontaneous days of summer are over, and the memories from them are carefully stored away in our minds, hearts...and cameras.

Last night, Jon and I went on a double date with our good friends Paul Sullivan and Jessica Okken. From picking dinner menus (of the 20 different kinds of cuisine you could pick at this seaside shopping center!), catching the last rays of the golden hour for pictures, or simply strolling around Ocean Grove licking ice cream from Day’s, the four of us caught the last rays of the golden hours of summer, bottling them up for the tough weeks of school ahead.

We started out with dinner, where I had the most delicious salmon on rice pilaf topped off with mango salsa...yuuummm!!! The others enjoyed lobster salad, and sushi.

Then we drove around with our jaws dropped as we looked at the homes around the area...and we decided not to crash a private dinner party. Very magnanimous of us, don’t you think?

The most glorious part of the evening was when we went to the beach, which was all but deserted. We kicked off our shoes, ran down to the waterline, and drank in the blues, the pinks, the waves, the sunset: all the art of God. Honestly...I can’t describe it...it was just so beautifully elating (and obviously it can't be captured perfectly on the camera. I'm telling you...the colors POPPED!):

“When I consider the heavens, the work of Your hands, the moon and the stars, which You have set in place, what is man that You are mindful of him, and the son of man, that You care for Him? ...O Lord, our Lord, how majestic is Your name in all the earth!”

-Psalm 8:3-4,9

“The heavens declare the glory of God, and the sky above proclaims His handiwork.”

-Psalm 19:1

“You rule the raging of the sea; when its waves rise, You still them.”

-Psalm 89:9

We topped the evening off with ice cream from Day’s Ice Cream in Ocean Grove.

Relaxing, rejuvenating, and invigorating...this is a memory that's going to keep me smiling.