“What I did on my October vacation, Days 3 & 4”
By Debbi Speer
I swam. With my family. On the beach. And in the pool. We walked on the beach. yada yada yada.
Then we saw some sea turtles. Then we swam some more. Oh, and we ate a lot too.
The end.
If you want more details, please unfold…
Tuesday:
If a picture’s worth a thousand words, well, too bad. I didn’t take any pictures of us during the day. Look at the pictures from yesterday to see what we did. The surf wasn’t quite as rough, but still rough enough to keep Crisana out of the water. The wind died down enough for us to set up the shelter, which was SO MUCH EASIER than last year. Having instructions helps! That, and not having the pop-up locks be rusted through. We went to the beach in the morning and stayed out until lunchtime. After lunch, the kids and I headed back out to the beach, this time with floaties, to ride the waves. Crisana decided not to go into the ocean and stayed up under the shelter continuing to build sandcastles while Trey and I played in the surf. Then it was pool time. We headed in to swim for a bit in the pool, and Matt came down to join us. After he and Crisana headed up to the condo to rest, Trey and I went back out to the beach for a short time before wearing ourselves completely out. After showering and having dinner, we took a sunset walk on the beach as a family. Trey and Matt walked in the shallow water, while Crisana and I literally took “the high road.” On our way back, we were delighted to be able to watch the sand crabs scurrying along the shoreline as the waves rolled in and out.
Matt, Trey and Crisana at the beginning of our beach walk.
Matt and Trey walking in the water.
Mom and Trey on the way back. As you can tell, we got caught by some pretty big waves!
Wednesday:
Despite all our good intentions, and our religious application of sunscreen, Trey managed to get his arms and shoulders slightly sunburned. We decided a morning out of the sun might be a good thing, so we took this day to go visit what has already become a favorite destination around here: Sea Turtle, Inc. This wonderful organization is dedicated to the preservation and rehabilitation of sea turtles, particularly the 5 species native to this area: Loggerhead, Leatherback, Atlantic Green, Hawksbill, and Kemps Ridley. We love visiting this place, where you can get up close and personal with the turtles. We spent about an hour there (it’s not very big), and since it was too early for lunch, we decided to go for a drive on the beach. Yes, that’s right: you can drive your car ON the beach. Last year when we did this, we watched a major frontal system move through over the ocean, but today it was nothing but blue sky and warm sunshine. And WIND. We had no idea until Debbi got out to take a picture and nearly had the car door ripped off its hinges!
A Kemp’s Ridley Sea Turtle that is scheduled for release back into the wild.
In our car, driving on the beach!
We drove for quite awhile down the beach, admiring the waves and weather, and noticing many more shells than we have on our stretch of beach. We finally decided to stop and take a look at the shells, and boy were we glad we did! The shells were easily 10 times the size of the ones we find near the condo, and so beautiful with striated designs of varying shades and hues. Unfortunately, the only container we had with us was a used sandwich ziploc baggie, so we gathered as many as we could fit inside. Trey thought he found a shark’s tooth, but it turned out to be a piece of broken shell.
We each picked a shell we liked…just look at how big they are!Â
Then it was off to lunch at another island favorite: Captain Roy’s. A local diner, we ate at Captain Roy’s last year for lunch one day and discovered there that Trey likes calamari! Any place that can open our child’s taste buds like that has our vote, hands down. Though the calamari wasn’t nearly as good this year, we managed to finish it off, vying for the last bite. Trey ate the fish platter, while Matt and I enjoyed various forms of fried seafood. We did a bit of tourist shopping following lunch, and ended up at a kite shop where we purchased new kites for the kids and me. The wind was too strong to fly them today, but hopefully we’ll have the chance before we leave.
After returning from our day out, Trey was dying to get back into the ocean. He and I headed back out and played in the surf for a couple of hours while Matt and Crisana rested. The undertow was much stronger today than it had been, and the surf much higher and rougher, so we stayed closer to shore. We headed back to the pool for a quick swim, where Matt and Crisana joined us, before it was dinner time. We ate on the balcony, enjoying the view, and finished off our day with another game of Cootie, which I barely won.
I tell you, this vacation thing…I am really loving it.