Beach Vacation, 2008 - Part 2

Posted July 27th, 2008 by Mom |

Tuesday evening after dinner - which was an event in and of itself - J wanted to try everyone’s dishes. J found out that he doesn’t like grilled mahi mahi (Nana’s dinner), but J LOVES crabcakes (part of Pop’s dinner).

Back at the hotel rooms after dinner, the boys got their flashlights, as did B and I and Nana and Pop. Nana and Pop had also brought nets with wooden handles and beach buckets with plastic shovels and plastic rakes for an adventure at catching crabs on the beach.

As it was late in the evening, around 8:30 and VERY dark on the beach, we weren’t sure if we would see any crabs. We nevertheless went down to the beach, after looking out the hotel balcony window to ensure that there were other people on the beach doing the same thing as we intended - there were.

It was very dark on the beach. I traded flashlights with the boys several times, as they were very impressed with my pink mini mag lite. Plus I was the designated bucket holder as the boys would scoop up sand and not find any crabs, run off to where Pop or Nana or B was looking with their flashlights and the kids would leave their sand buckets and tools in the dark. I would round up the buckets and tools and follow the youngsters. (I wonder how long it would have taken for the boys to miss me if I had taken all the buckets and tools back to the hotel room and stayed there having some peace and quiet…)

I don’t remember who it was that first found a crab scurrying on the beach, I think it was B. The crab was very small - maybe an inch across from one leg to the leg on the other side and the crab was completely white in color. It looked kind of like a dandelion flying across the sand, moving very quickly. I managed to scoop it up in one of the kids’ nets, only for it to be so small it climbed through the netting and fell out the other side onto the sand. The next time I captured it with the net and Pop helped me to flip it out, sand and all, into the blue sand bucket. C and J really enjoyed watching the baby crab moving around the bottom of the sand bucket, as the bucket was too slick for the crab to catch a hold of it and climb out. J wanted to, “smush it dead.” However I was able to persuade him otherwise and as the kids, Nana and Pop were ready to leave for the hotel rooms, J decided to let the crab go back to its Mommy, so Pop dumped the bucket out and away the crab went. B and I stayed on the beach awhile for some quiet time and returned to the room as Pop was telling J a story in bed and Nana was telling C a bedtime story.

B and I slept quite restfully all by ourselves, in the king size bed. Nice!

J woke me up the next morning (Wednesday) wanting to know where Pop and Nana were. I told him that I was sure that they went downstairs for their morning coffee. (Nana and Pop had gone for a walk on the beach and returned after C was awake, maybe 30 minutes later.)

We all got dressed and went downstairs for the breakfast buffet - scrambled eggs, bacon, ham, sausage, assortment of fresh fruit and cereals and pastries. It was delicious!

After breakfast, B left the boys in our capable hands and went for a bike ride. B really wanted to bike the big bridge that connected FL to Perdido. I wasn’t about to attempt that bridge. I knew that it would be fun riding down it, but I would be pushing my bike UP the bridge!

Nana and I went downstairs with the boys, as they wanted to swim awhile. A bit later, Pop came down and told us that B was heading back to Pensacola to a bike shop. When B tried to straighten the bike wheel spoke, it broke. He got the bike shop to fix the spoke and purchased the exact bicycle tote bag that he had been admiring online recently. Unfortunately the bike tote bag wasn’t sold by any shops in our home town. It worked out really well that B was able to get the tote bag in Pensacola. Every time he looked at the bag, made by Trek, B commented, “It is really great to see quality engineering that is made in Wisconsin!” I’m so glad that B was able to get this bag. He had purchased a bike rack/bag holder for his bike and had tried a lot of different bags, but this is the one he really wanted. I’m glad he has it now.

We had a cheese pizza at the hotel pizzeria after B returned from the bike shop in Pensacola. Then it was rest time for the boys, and me. After rest time - BEACH TIME! The kids woke up before I did and went on down to the beach with B, Nana and Pop. When I woke up I realized that the boys didn’t have their sand toys and took the toys to the boys. We all had a good time making sand castles.

J and I ventured into the water. The water was so warm. I held onto J’s hand to help him conquer the waves. At one big wave, J got knocked down and I didn’t have a good foothold and fell also. I came up from under the water screaming for J. Fortunately the water pushed him right up to Pop, who was near the edge of the water. J and I both got really scared. Later, J was willing to let B hold him while B stood in the water. At breakfast the next morning, J said, “Mommy let me fall in the water, but Daddy kept me dry.” I felt like dirt!

It was really funny watching C in the water. C would run out as the waves went out and then run to the beach as the waves came in. Once C got water in his mouth and he kept trying to spit the taste of the salt out of his mouth. Yes, the saltwater did have a REALLY strong taste!

J was very tired that evening, so B and J stayed in the hotel room for dinner (peanut butter crackers and teddy grahams for J, B had dinner later by himself). Pop, Nana, C and I had dinner downstairs in the Palm Cafe Restaurant. C liked having the grownups all to himself. The hotel even made a peanut butter and strawberry jelly sandwich just for C! The restaurant was SO accommodating! The chef didn’t have strawberry jelly, but used quite a few of the breakfast packets of strawberry jam to create the perfect sandwich for C. For dessert C had vanilla ice cream with mini M&M’s. (This is how accommodating the restaurant really was… There was, on the beach level of the hotel the pizzeria, at the pizzeria there was also an ice cream bar. C knew that there were ice cream toppings there and the cafe sent one of their crew down to the beach level to retrieve the mini M&M’s for C!) C put all of his mini M&M’s on top of his ice cream. As the ice cream melted, he couldn’t find the M&M’s. I helped him out by drinking the melted ice cream so he could see the M&M’s on the bottom of the bowl. C was overjoyed! Sugar boy!

After dinner C worked on his Star Wars lego ship that Nana had brought for him, while J played with his new cars that Nana brought for him. Then it was bed time. J again chose to sleep with Pop and C wanted to sleep with Nana. What?! Another night for me and B - ALONE?! Can it be? YEAH!!

Next posting will be about Thursday - awesomely huge waves (compliments of hurricane Dolly, that made landfall Wednesday morning in Texas), the dolphin cruise, kids playing at the park, and bushwhackers.

I have already washed and put away 8 loads of laundry. I’m off to do another couple of loads.

B asked me this afternoon, “What’s for lunch?” I told him, “Palm Cafe.” B replied, “We are out of lunch tickets.” Oh, well. It was great having the restaurants last week. I just wish we could have brought a few of the chefs home with us…