This is How We Vacation: Part 2

I'll pick up the story from where I last left off, as we were arriving in Florida. 

As soon as we arrived in Florida, we checked into our condo and got dressed for the beach.  Katherine's first impression of the beach was complete amazement, although (spoiler alert) the beach experience that Disney depicted wasn't exactly accurate.  Initially, she loved loved the sand between her toes but wasn't sure about the constant uncontrollable motion of the water.  In fact, over the next couple of days she spent her time going back and forth from the sand to the pool.  Jason was a real trooper (pun intended) with taking her to the pool while I stayed on the beach. 

On Tuesday, we ventured out for the first time and visited the Naval Aviation Museum to watch the Blue Angels practice.  It was a fantastic idea, until we realized that everyone else in the state of Florida (and beyond) had had the same idea.  Despite the crowds, we still saw Blue Angels fly and we still saw the museum so all in all, it was a good day.  

Over the next few days, Katherine's fear of the ocean slowly subsided and before long she was running into the waves solo (wearing some sort of flotation device of course).  By the end of the week, she would scream and cry when it was time to get out of the water and clean up for the day.  At night we would walk the beach with our flashlights and look for crabs, which Jason apparently thought was an urban myth because once he saw an actual crab scurrying across the sand he about lost his dinner due to their quick, spider-like movements.   

On Thursday we headed out to the Gulfarium Marine Adventure Park, where we came face to face with lots of marine wildlife.  

Then it was back to the beach for the duration of the trip.  We literally ate seafood and swam in the ocean for a majority of the week.  No frills or dramatics.  We're easy to please.  Katherine even "surfed and danced and sang" on the beach, just like in her Teen Beach Movies.  

One night mid-week, Katherine decided to party all night, again.  She randomly woke up at 3:30 a.m. and sang songs and danced until almost 5:00 a.m.  That sure was fun, since we were all sleeping in one room.  Also, we met several people from St. Louis in and around our condo building.  It was a little strange that there were so many from the St. Louis area staying where we were.

We never really took a "traditional family photo on the beach," even though I did bring my tripod and wireless camera remote.  We did, however, remember to snap this family selfie on the pier after dinner one night.

This was probably the only night we got cleaned up for dinner.  Most nights, we ate with salt water ocean hair and sunblock covered skin.  C'est la vie.

One night, Katherine got a crab bucket and shovel with her dinner.  It was a very exciting time.  

We had such a fun time last week and I hated to see it end.  I almost teared up when Katherine said bye bye to the ocean right before we loaded up in the car to head home.  We opted to drive back to Kennett in one day, and about halfway into our nine hour drive Katherine realized we weren't just out sight seeing.  She started asking about going back to our condo so she could put her swimsuit on and go to the beach.  Broke my heart.  I'm already planning our next trip to the beach.  

I love getting away for a week (or longer) with my family and unplugging from it all.  However, I feel like once we're back home it takes me a whole extra week to get caught up.  I stayed off of social media for many reasons, one being I hadn't yet watched the summer finale of Pretty Little Liars and did not want any spoilers.  If you know who A really is, keep it to yourself.  (Although I think I've passed the statute of limitations on spoiler alerts since the episode aired over a week ago.)  Luckily, it's safely saved on my DVR along with every other show I missed last week.   

We're finally home from a 10 day adventure and ready for the next adventure.  Changes are coming y'all.  (I picked y'all back up while in the south.)

Note:  Since writing this, I have watched the summer finale of Pretty Little Liars.  Holy cow.  That was a mess.