Florida 2009 #6

We awoke yesterday morning to the excitement of the girls spotting Easter eggs that were hidden all over the first floor of the beach house. They were really excited to find additional surprises on the dining room table, a floppy eared bunny hat for each of them, an egg collecting bag, and a baby chick that chirped when you put it in your hand. They loved all three, especially little Hannah, who wore her bunny hat all day yesterday, and held her little “palm pal” in her hand (and slept with it too…causing it to chirp intermittently throughout the night last night.
Anyhow, after having breakfast, we all did our separate things. My main objective was to make sure that I came home with some sort of a suntan. From what I can tell this morning, I think I do…but time will tell when I get to work tomorrow morning. Rudy was busy piling up a big mound of sand so that he could make a sandcastle, my mom, Mickey, and I were all laying in the sun, and the girls were down on the beach having a ball in the waves.

Later on in the afternoon, Sarah, my mom, and I decided to talk a walk down the beach. Mom had picked a landmark to which we would walk, and we headed out on our way. I should have been a little leery about this, mainly because I am not so sure what kind of judgment of distance my mom has. I recall our trip in Hong Kong where she insisted that we could walk from Kowloon to Stanley Market, though it was several miles away by road. This house that we were venturing towards was like Stanley Market from where we were staying on the beach. As we kept trying to walk closer and closer to the house, the landmark kept getting farther and farther away. Finally, I think Sarah and I had enough walking, and we decided to head back. Well, we were WAY away from the house. With mom looking for seashells, Sarah making drawings in the sand as we made our way back, and me having to go to the bathroom, it seemed like we would never get back.

After Sarah got some sand in her eye, mom and Sarah thought it would be best that they walk along the road back to the beach house instead of the beach. After all, the winds were quite gusty, whipping up sand all over the place. I, however, continued heading back on the beach. Upon making it back to the house, I was certain that for some odd reason I would see Sarah and my mom back before me. Since they were the ones with the walkie-talkies in communicado with home base (my brother), I was sure that they would ask someone to come pick them up. As I kept stewing about it more and more walking along the beach, I noticed that my walking pace had picked up quite a bit. My brother commented that he saw me walking back and that I looked like I was on a mission. And I was: to get back.

Well, knowing that Sarah didn’t have shoes on, and that I wasn’t so sure there was an easy route back to the house, I thought it best that I grab the keys to the car, and went out to pick up my mom and Sarah. They were extremely grateful for the ride, but we managed to have a good laugh, as Sarah was very concerned about having to walk in areas where it said “no trespassing” or “private property” and was sure that she was going to go to “juvie.”

As Sarah has been keeping a journal as I mentioned before, the first words out of her mouth when she got back to the house was, “I am going to have a LONG story about this….and it AIN’T gonna be pretty!”

We had supper in the evening, and as we were waiting, the girls came running back into the house saying that there were some young girls smashing their dad’s sand castle. Sarah was all about going down to the beach to give them a piece of her mind. She invited the other two girls, and Becca and Hannah were following behind. Once Becca got into the mix, she was hell bent for leather on her way down, and blew past Sarah. As they got down to the end of the boardwalk, Sarah lingered around having stopped, and Becca was determined to give these “mean girls” a little instruction. Of course, she couldn’t do it without her protector, Hannah, there for support (even though she is the littlest of the three). It ended up to be little Hannah that did all of the talking, and the other two just hung back to watch.

Well, of course the girls were all hot and bothered by the time they came back to the house, and really…the sand castle was more of a big pile of sand that had yet to be shaped into a castle. But they were irritated all of the same. My brother and I got talking about it, and started laughing. These little girls were from the South, having said “y’all” to them. Sarah thought they were from Texas and immediately proclaimed that all Texas girls are mean. I proceeded to tell her that we should just give Texas back to Mexico then. Rudy, on the other hand, said that they should have told them from their actions, “We now know why the North won.” The girls didn’t get it. I almost had wine come out my nose.

After the girls were calmed down, we had dinner, and then got ready to watch “Dancing With the Stars” before going to bed.

I had to get up earlier this morning, so that I would be able to get all of my stuff packed up in my duffle bag, so that it wasn’t all over the house, and then all of my electronics in my book bag so that I can take them home with me on my way back to Wisconsin today. This morning is very cold (probably low 40’s), and we actually had to turn on the heat in the house, as the thermostat said 61.

I have had a great time in Florida yet again, and I think for the most part I am mostly unwound. The good thing is that I only have a short week this week, with Friday being shortened by 3 hours due to it being Good Friday.

I am not so sure I am ready to go back to work, as I really have enjoyed the warm weather, the ocean, the sunshine, and Florida. But, alas, I have to pay for my house and make a living somehow.