The House of Echoes and Waves

So it started out in this weird house where there was a party going on. It was a multistory house with at least 4 internal balconies. On the balconies there were people sitting at tables chatting and dressed in 18th century attire. I couldn't find the stairs to get to where they were though and I also couldn't find any exterior doors so I looked around and on the first floor across from the apparent gift shop(there was a person behind a register, also in period attire but distracted by a smart phone) there were three large bookcases that spanned all 4 stories of the house. So I began climbing up the first one and it started swaying. Made it all the way to the top and then I hear a familiar voice at the base of the bookcase asking me what I'm doing. Ends up being a friend of mine from my scouting days and he wants to know what the heck I'm doing at the top of the bookcase which is still swaying and also wants to know if I want to go to the beach with him and meet his girlfriend. I tell him "yeah man, I don't think I can get down from here though" as every attempt to do so made the bookcase start to tip over. So I ask him if he'll hold it against the wall which he obliges and I hurriedly make it back down to the first floor. When I get there he gives me a high five and asks how I've been saying, "it's been a literal age since I've seen you". I say, "Yeah man we were just kids playing poker the last time I saw you". Then he's like "That's true, but a lot's changed since then, come on let's go outside and I'll show you." I then follow him through the first floor of the house past the gift shop to a long corridor with doors on the left and right, at the end of this corridor is a large double door with swinging doors and portholes for windows. Behind it you can see that it's a large commercial style kitchen. As we're walking through the kitchen he starts adding various things to the dishes that are cooking in there, a little salt here, some vinegar there, a little bit of pepper, etc. After doing that for a short time we proceed toward the open door at the back of the kitchen which leads out to a boardwalk like structure. You could smell the salt air and hear the gulls. Once we're out on the boardwalk he goes "Alright man, beach is right over there." and points to the ocean and waves rolling in. The water is pacific blue but I was led to believe at the start of the dream we were on the east coast for some reason. There are many people on the beach doing the things one does at the beach and he focuses on this group of 5 individuals about a hundred yards off down the beach, there's a larger lady with silver hair wearing a light colored sun dress and denim jacket whom I recognize as his mother, a balding short man wearing khakis and a purple shirt whom I recognize as his father, 2 kids around the age of 5 or 6 and a tall girl with long wavy brown hair (halfway wavy, half curly wearing a blue and yellow bikini top and similarly colored yoga pants whom he points out as his girlfriend. I never see her face though and I tried, but her longish hair was obstructing my view of it from every angle. At this point he asks me if I want to meet her and I'm like "Sure man, it's good to see you happy, are those your kids?" And he says, "No those are my brother's kids. He died last year in a car accident with his wife but they survived so mom and dad take care of them now." I offer him my condolences at which point he says "That's just the way the world works though innit?" I agree and then he says to me, "What about you man? Got a wife? Girlfriend? Any kids?" I tell him no kids but "There IS someone special in my life." I then proceed to pull out my smartphone to show him pictures of this girl but all the pictures I had of her, her contact card, call history, texts, everything is all gone. I say, "Dude, she was just here I don't know what the deal is." At which point he looks at me and says, "That's just the way the world works innit?"