Scenes from My Family Vacation

Last week my family and I went on vacation to Ocean City, New Jersey (nicknamed America's greatest family resort). My wife and I have been going to Ocean City since before we had kids. I believe it's been nearly 23 years. I love the beach and one of the bonuses of living on the east coast is how easy it is to drive "down to the shore."

I took in some breathtaking sunrises and sunsets, but I also got to unwind and stumbled across a phase of life that I didn't expect would be here so soon. My son is almost 14 years old and he wanted to do his own thing. My daughter is nearly 10 years old and gone were the father/daughter building sandcastle days. I think what marked the passing of an era was my walking along the beach, watching the young dads and moms playing with their toddlers. I remember those days, but they are now long gone. I'll not lie--I got a bit misty eyed thinking about how my kids are growing up so fast and how they'll soon be away to college and beyond before I knew it. Time marches on and will not stop for anyone.

The good news is that, as a family, we got to spend some great times together. I got to go fishing with my kids (my daughter caught an eel!), go Pokemon Go hunting with my son, and belatedly celebrated our 17th wedding anniversary. The days were packed full with fun and excitement passing by in the blink of an eye.

As how life is, I'm already back at work and have spent the last three days working extremely hard to finish my next novel Ahab's Daughter: The Werewhale Saga. I can happily share that the book is with the proofreader and the cover design is being worked on.

But I wanted to share some happiness and goodness with you. While on the beach, I took some time to put a short video together that I thought you might like. I work really hard throughout the year at my full-time job, writing, and raising a family. I don't get a chance to unwind and relax a lot. But I did go running on the boardwalk a few times during the week to see the sunrise and I also took a 30 second video of the ocean waves. It doesn't matter how stressed out I am, the sound of the crashing ocean waves has always calmed me. Watch the video on YouTube and spend those 30 seconds imagining that you're there on that beach. Ahhh, that's nice.

Time goes by really, really quickly. It feels like yesterday that I held my son in my arms when he was first born or the thunderstorm broke after the birth of my daughter 10 years ago. All that time cannot be bottled up and saved. As sad as it might be, the past is gone. I'm taking time today to write about this because I'm feeling a bit nostalgic. But I also want to focus on the good that I have today. Yes, there are challenges (don't we all have them?), but I'm choosing to focus on the positive in my life. And I wanted to share that with you. I was lucky enough to have a week to spend with my family and make new memories with them. I hope you enjoy the video and get to spend time with your own loved ones.

Ron Vitale is a fantasy, science fiction and nonfiction author. He's written the Cinderella's Secret Witch Diaries series, the Witch's Coven series and just released book one in the Jovian Gate Chronicles. His first nonfiction book, How to Be a Successful Author While Working Full-Time: The Secret to Work/Life Balance is now available. When not writing, Ron loves spending time with his kids even when they beat him in Kittens in a Blender.