Day 7 - Life's a Beach

Elzie woke everyone up this morning by tossing them thier bathing suits and saying "I'm going to the beach. Who's coming with me?" The kids were pretty quick to get up, for a change. We had breakfast in the condo, inflated our new beach toys, and went down to the office to check in officially. The condo came with a complimentary beach "set-up" - an umbrella and two chairs. We claimed ours, and put our feet in the Gulf of Mexico for the first time. The water was wonderful, and the weather was perfect.

In front of us was an elaborate sand castle left over from the previous evening. Someone had spent a long time working on it. JB couldn't stay away from it. She kept climbing over it, sitting in the "moat", gradually destroying it. She dug a huge shard of broken glass out of the "moat" (remnant from Dennis?), and I finally had to put a stop to her fun.

Kaybee found a small sand crab - it was about the size of a quarter, and all white. It looked more like a spider than a crab. She put it in our beach pail with some sand, and they got a kick out of watching it bury itself in the sand, all except the eyes, which stuck out like periscopes.

The sand was fine, and white, and nice. The sun was just hot enough, and the umbrella cast a welcome shadow onto our lounge chairs. The kids played in the sand and waded in the gulf. I was able to sit and read and relax, which was a real treat. Elzie watched the kids having fun, and mingled with the other beach goers. She met a couple from Mobile, Alabama who were forced out of their home by hurricane Katrina. A huge oak tree fell and vented their ceiling. Their son works for ResortQuest (but we won't hold that against him), and he was able to get them a condo at Water's Edge while their house was being repaired. They were able to return once a week to Mobile to check on their house, and in the meantime got to stay at the beach. Not something I would wish on anyone, but it sounded like they were making the most of a bad situation.

At one point, Kaybee came out of the water crying, saying that a "big brown blob" had scratched her leg. She rinsed off at the outdoor shower, but it didn't help much. Her leg looked scratched, and she said it was really stinging. She was ready to write off the ocean and head for the pool, but Elzie convinced her to give it another shot. Before long she was back in the water and having a good time, her injury forgotten.

(Later, from the balcony, Elzie and I saw something brown in the water, and everyone on the beach was very curious about it, but nobody went too close to it. Finally, I said "I'm going down to see what it is." It turned out to be a rather large, brownish-red jellyfish, a sea nettle I think, as big as a human head. We assume that's what got Kaybee).

Eventually, we got hungry, so we went up to the condo for some sandwiches. Elzie, the sudoku addict, ate lunch on the balcony with her puzzle book. She loves to listen to the ocean (Sometimes at home, she'll sit out on the deck and imagine that the traffic noise from the new 10-lane superslab is the ocean). JB went down for a nap, and after my investigation of the jellyfish, I went for a nice, long walk up the beach.

When I got back from my walk, I took the two older girls down to the pool for a swim. Little bit was exhausted, and still sleeping. Elzie sat on the balcony, and was thrilled to see dolphins swimming in the gulf on several occasions. We swam at the pool for quite a while, as Mom watched and sudokued from the balcony, and the four-year-old slept off the active morning. Eventually Elzie went in to make dinner for us. It was nice to have a home-cooked meal. Libby was especially tired of "eating in restaurants every night."

We declared a "TV-free" evening, and passed the time playing cards. JB was thrilled to discover kid books and puzzles along with the board games under the coffee table. Kaybee was very tired, and pushed two chairs together on the balcony and laid on them while listening to the ocean. She reports that this was one of her favorite things that she did while on vacation. It was as peaceful an evening as you can expect to have with three kids in the house.

After the monsters were in bed, I made Pina Coladas, and my wife and I enjoyed a drink from our "fancy" Grande Vista glasses on the balcony. It was cool enough in the evening that we could turn off the air conditioning, open the bedroom windows, and listen to the waves as we slept.

Find out about Day 8...