I've never been in many mansions, but the Biltmore house here in North Carolina is pretty awesome to see. I forget how many years it took to build, but I couldn't fathom it and then to see that the man that had it built only lived 6 years after it was completed. That was a whole lot of time and money to only get to enjoy it 6 years I thought. Still, I had a very hard time while walking around in it, imaging someone actually living there day to day.

I enjoyed your story of swimming in the ocean for the first time. When I was growing up, my parents took us to the beach for a week nearly every year and we swam in the ocean every day for hours and hours and played in the sand. Here most of the beaches are sandy and not so full of pebbles. There are piles of shells that wash up here and three from time to time though. We never thought anything about it. It wasn't till after I became an adult that my concern for sharks and jelly fish and the such, pretty much kept me from going out over knee deep. It's true they say the salt water is good for your skin and cuts and the such. Very healing.