Growing up, my siblings and I would spend the winter months at our aunts beach house.
My mother, being a school instructor, would take us to her sisters beach condo a few hours away for a month each winter break.
My associate and I regularly looked forward to this trip with our mom because she grew up on the ocean, where my buddy and I lived, there was no beach, however she and my aunt taught us to enjoy the ocean. My associate and I would surf, swim and sit out in the afternoonlight studying books all afternoon. My favorite part of going to the beach condo in the winter was the wood burning fireplace that was used to heat the house. The condo my buddy and I lived in did not have a fireplace. I regularly found the glow of the fire to be soothing and calming, especially in combination with the waves crashing on the nearby coast. Sometimes, it would get so freezing in the study rooms that my buddy and I would bundle up next to the fireplace and stay there all evening. One evening it was so freezing that me, my sister and my mom all slept in the study room near the wood burning fireplace. My aunt had another fireplace in her study room, so she was fine; But, there was no other heating in the rest of the house. I regularly enjoyed spending the winter breaks with my aunt at her beach condo and I know that is something that I will take with me for the rest of my life. Without those experiences, I might have never come to enjoy the ocean as much as I do.