We’re currently vacationing in Florida. We’re on day 7 of 11. Some highlights so far:
Kids say the darndest things:
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Tranquil (4 yrs) in the Chicago Midway airport upon hearing the automated announcement on the moving sidewalk: “Caution. The sidewalk is coming to an end.” Tranquil: “Oh man! That’s not fair!”
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Noble (2 yrs) when I wore my new sandles for the first time: “What’s that daddy?” Me: “These are my new sandles.” Noble: “New sandles? Cool.”
Things we’ve done so far:
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Corkscrew Swamp Sanctuary - It was pouring rain the whole drive. We got there had our picnic lunch and then the sun came out for a beautiful afternoon. We saw 3 alligators and tons of different birds and lizards.
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G Wiz Science Museum - They had a King Tut exhibit which was cool and nerve-racking trying to keep the children away from and the Bodies Revealed exhibit which was just plain creepy. We wondered where they got the bodies from (they were all noticeably of SE Asian decent). That night I watched 20/20 which had a piece about the mysterious origin of the bodies (possibly executed Chinese prisoners).
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Caspersen Beach – This place is world-renowned for finding fossilized shark’s teeth. We probably found around 30 of them. The boys want to go back so they can find more to give to friends.
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Sanibel/Captiva Island – world-renowned for sea shells. Besides collecting sea shells, we saw four dolphins swimming out in the gulf and I “caught” a sea urchin floating in the water. This was a perfect day – sunny 83 degrees with low humidity and a light breeze.
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Boating in the intracoastal waterway – The intercoastal waterway is the water between the Florida mainland and the islands. It’s part of the Gulf but it’s calmer water for smaller boats. We had two different dolphins swim right up to our boat. It was a lot of fun but it was our 3rd straight day out in the sun so we all felt (and looked) pretty fried afterwards.
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Lots of swimming in the pool
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More than healthy amounts of steak, seafood, beer and ice cream.
Most-memorable:
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Heidi and I drove back from Sanibel Island alone in her mom’s T-top Camaro. We cranked the 80’s rock on the radio and took our time getting back. That made the vacation right there.
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Heidi’s mom watched the kids for us on Valentine’s night and gave us some money to go out. It was too late for us to get a reservation anywhere on the water, but we still had a great seafood dinner at a local no-frills establishment. Afterward, we took a moonlit walk on the beach. Over the course of the evening, we talked a lot about our present and future and where God may be leading us. It was just great to be able to connect as a couple. I think it was the first time since we’ve been married that we’ve gone out on Valentine’s Day.
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Since this is a family-friendly blog, I can’t share the real highlights. ;-0
Right now my computer says it’s 80 and sunny here and snowing and Zero back home. I guess that’s a highlight.
Sounds like you are having a great vacation.
I’m not sure about the Body’s Revealed exhibit, but they had a Body Works exhibit at the Science Museum up here a little while back.
Bodies were donated by volunteers (they died first, silly).
And Sequoia (my 8-yr-old) saw a healthy lung and a smoker’s lung. And said, “I am NEVER going to smoke.” My wife then noticed a lady across the glass from them break into a smile.
Very cool.