We left Columbus after a hearty breakfast that the hotel provided. The jmonsters were excited that they had doughnuts and cereal. For them it was the breakfast of champions. We started our trek to Tennessee and to visit with Brian and Jeri and family. We enjoyed the drive through Cincinnati and Nashville although the traffic was a little hairy through there. We made it without a problem to Brian’s house and had to wait for a little while. Mommy didn’t take into effect the time change in Tennessee. It was Central time zone so Mommy and the jmonsters walked around until Brian came home with Paul and Mac.
The boys immediately took off and went to play while Brian gave Mommy the grand tour. Their house is beautiful and the pool is the crown jewel. They really did a nice job with it and the jmonsters couldn’t wait to jump in. As soon as Jeri, Sara, and Megan came home they were all in the pool. We enjoyed pizza and the beautiful Tennessee night while the kids swam. We reluctantly went to bed and woke with a morning swim. The jmonsters did not want to get back in the car for the last leg of the trip but Mommy was determined to get R’ done. We left Tennessee wonderful memories and promises of coming back…
We decided that this weekend was reserved for the boat. It was a beautiful day and we decided that we would try our luck at grilling some hotdogs and sausages on our new little hibachi. The best laid plans of mice and men, despite the numerous warnings from Mommy that we should try it out before taking it on the boat, Daddy tempted fate and decided, it’s pretty simple what could go wrong. Well nothing went wrong, but nothing happened either. No gas, no flame, no hotdogs, but we had a couple of I told you so’s murmured under breath.
We did have a great time frolicking in the water, even Fancee had a ball swimming and chasing the occasional gaggle of ducks that floated by looking for a hand out. We aren’t sure if she if she would keep going or not we always swim out and rudder her back to the boat by grabbing her tail. She does go into hyper-drive with her head out of the water kicking up sand as she goes.
Around dinner time we headed in and Daddy did the walk off shame over to the convenience store to buy some charcoal. We cooked out at the park and finally enjoyed the hotdogs and sausages we planned on. We cleaned up, it seems like there is always a lot of cleaning up - jmonsters are pigs where ever they go but especially on the boat, we headed back out.
We did a bit of tubing, even Daddy got into the action being dragged around like a beached whale. Tallmonster loves getting pulled on the tube we “S” curve and do circles, and when we look back he has a grin from ear to ear. Water soaked and a little crispy from the sun we headed back. Tomorrow is supposed to be ninety something, so the epic will continue…
We decide to try our luck at the Herkimer Diamond Mines on Friday. With visions of $$ in the jmonsters heads, we took off on short ride down the Thruway (long for the jmonsters) to the mines.
After getting our hammers and safety goggles (for a small fee) off we went to dig for treasures. The jmonsters were excited to start with but soon enough their excitement turned to “I’m thirsty and hot” pretty quickly. Luckily Mommy loaded the van with snacks and drinks so the jmonsters spent more time eating and drinking than digging. We are considering getting feed bags, IV’s, and catheters when ever we travel outside the house.
Daddy was the first to strike diamonds, a nice dime sized piece. Mommy soon followed suit and found a much smaller piece but nice none the less. We checked out the museum to oooh and ahhh over all the other finds and headed home.
Geo: Map
Our last day of vacation, today we fly back home to see what is left of the 14″ of snow that we conveniently missed. We, (Mommy and Daddy, the jmonsters stayed with the Grandfolks for some more swimming), wanted to hike the Garcon Point Trail to see the infamous Pitcher Plant that held up the building of the Garcon Point Bridge for years.
The trail was a little over a mile and a half, and really flat. It was pretty amazing how the landscape changed from forest to scrub, to coastal in such a short distance. We were a little concerned that we wouldn’t be able to find the plants. We walked half way around without seeing anything.
Just past the turn we saw a patch of red and walked over to see a clump of Pitcher Plants. They are certainly beautiful and impressive with their closable tops. I’m not sure if putting a multi-billion dollar bridge on hold was appropriate, but that’s why we aren’t environmentalist.
flickr: Set – Detail – Slide Show – Map
GEO: Garcon Point Trail [GP:gpt]
This is where the jmonsters spent the bulk of their vacation. Frolicking, bobbing, jumping, and splashing in the pool. It was cold, but Smallmonster cowboyed up and spent a great deal of time swimming with the Floridian D-O-G’s.
When allowed the jmonsters and Daddy headed for the hot tub. No problems with the water temperature here, a balmy 104 degrees.
flickr: Set – Detail – Slide Show – Map
GEO: Grandma and Grandpa’s in Florida [GP:ginfla]
After cleaning off the sand we headed down to the Saenger Theatre to watch Shelby perform in her All- County Chorus recital. She and the other children sang fantastic.
We followed up with a celebration at CG’s with ice cream sundaes and video games.
Beach – Fun – Sun – Singing – Ice Cream – a darn near perfect day.
flickr: Set – Detail – Slide Show – Map
GEO: Saenger Theatre [GP:saenger]
What do you do when you visit Florida? You head to the beach… We headed over to pick up CG and then out to Navarre Beach for some fun in the sun and surf. The beach looks to be back normal, the roads don’t connect from Navarre to Pensacola yet, and there is some talk that they may not.
The jmonsters took right to the water and even Mommy and Daddy ventured in after getting over the initial shock of cold water temperatures. It’s usually pretty difficult to get hypothermia in Florida, so we felt somewhat comfortable that we were indeed getting used to the water, and not just going numb.
The waves were pretty cool and the jmonsters loved being tumbled and then pounded in the surf. They collected shells, and built elaborate sand castles with moats and break walls.
Tallmonster, Mommy and Daddy headed out to the second sand bar about 50 feet off shore. Here the water shallowed back out to less than two feet in some places. The water didn’t break here so we found some shells still intact. Mommy even found a couple of sand dollars. They were still alive so she put them back where she found them. She said if she didn’t feel them moving in her hand she might have considered keeping them, but the conservation side of her took precedence.
After a couple of hours frolicking in the sand we decided to head back. We wanted to get a bite to eat for lunch, so we did the quick change in the van. When we got Smallmonster shimmied out of his bathing suit we discovered that he had shells decorating a place that no man should have shells. After the initial shock he decided that maybe it was a little cool and that we should consider keeping the one half of a clam shell that was so strategically placed that you couldn’t have put it there if you were trying. We decided against it and got him cleaned up, changed, and ready for lunch.
We stopped out and had some burgers and then headed home to get cleaned up for Shelby’s concert.
flickr: Set – Detail – Slide Show – Map
: Web Album
GEO: Navarre Beach [GP:navarre]
We headed out to Gulf Breeze, to the Navel Live Oaks National Park. We were on the hunt for some sea life critters, and weren’t disappointed. There were plenty of Hermit Crabs, with really big shells. We must have been in the high rent district because the shells the crabs were calling homes were awesome.
While wading alone the shore we noticed a few blue crabs darting back out to deeper water. The hunt was on… We were able to corral a couple of the smaller ones back towards the shallower water. Daddy took the direct approach and reached down to grab one from behind. This ended in a bite or pinch - whatever crabs do. Followed by the noncontrollable heebee-geebee dance when something doesn’t really hurt (that bad), but you are convinced you just lost a digit.
To limit the injury liability we opted for the quick toss to shore, while Mommy perfected the claw to the stick routine. Both methods proved to be successful, and we were able to get some close up views of the crabby crabs with the prehistoric look and really grumpy personalities. We stopped torturing the wildlife, which we read later was a no-no at National Parks. We decided that our activities weren’t really “disruptive” and besides one of the crabs had his revenge on Daddy’s finger, so all was “fair” in love and crabbin’.
flickr: Set – Detail – Slide Show – Map
: Web Album
GEO: Navel Live Oaks National Park [GP:ns]
We headed over to CG’s house, for dinner and playing with the cousins. CG made a delicious chili, and we visited with all of the D-O-G’s. Tallmonster and Colby with the help of Uncle Andy were able to get the go-cart up and running. Tallmonster was in his glory zipping up and down the road and actually driving a mechanical device. Tallmonster even took Daddy for a ride, it wasn’t much different then an airline seat all folded up and uncomfortable. Daddy survived and it only took a push from Colby to get the go-cart moving, we are pretty sure that the maximum occupancy weight was exceeded.
Uncle Andy rounded up the kids to do some Monster Mudding in the front lawn. The plans for a pond were dashed and the pit was filled in with dirt and logs. The modified Ford Bronco with huge tires was fired up ready to take on the pit and filled with wide eyed cousins in the back. Smallmonster took a powder, he spent his time saying whoa and wringing his hands with nervous excitement. Tallmonster was front and center, or leaning out the back of the bed screaming encouragements.
The truck crawled and ate trough the pit and spit out the logs out the back. Every time it looked like it wouldn’t make it, but Uncle Andy just hit the gas and nothing was any match for the huge tires of the Green Monster Mudder Machine. Uncle Andy pretty much hit “God” status with the jmonsters with all of his “big boy” toys.
flickr: Set – Detail – Slide Show – Map
: Web Album
GEO: CG’s [GP:cg]
Our flight was a bit tense, we were racing the Nor’ Ester that left twenty inches of snow at home on Monday. It was just thunderstorms when it was hitting Atlanta, and our plane took off just as the rain started to fall. It was a bit bumpy on the take off, but once we got above the clouds it was smooth sailing.
The jmonsters did great on the flights, and even reasonably behaved the selves with a four hour layover in Atlanta. We had dinner in one of the restaurants, where Tallmonster decided to dine on a big plate of french fries. Not the most nutritious of meals, but we are on vacation so Mommy let it slide.
CG and Uncle Andy met us at the Biloxi airport, which was still showing plenty of signs of the devastation from Katrina. We drove back to Grandma and Grandpa’s along Route 98 to see the water, and Casinos. Gulf Port is still a mess and it seems like we forgot that this is where the hurricane actually hit, and that New Orleans damage was from flooding when the levies broke, not from the direct hit of the hurricane.
Once out of Gulf Port we jumped on I10 and made better time to the house. Still a better than two hour drive, in hindsight we realized it probably wasn’t worth the savings to fly into Biloxi, rather than into Pensacola. It was on this leg of the trip the thunderstorms were upon us in full force. We tried to pass off the lightning as radio station towers flashing to pacify Smallmonster’s neurosis of lightning, but when the terrenchal rain hit he was pretty wise to us.
We made it back to Grandma and Grandpas and all of the cousins were there. The jmonsters were in their glory playing and romping with Zach, Colby, and Shelby. We were able to keep them out of the pool for one night, mostly because the rain had made it an unseasonably cool 60 degrees. However, the cooler weather would not deter the jmonsters swimming plans for the rest of the week.
GEO: Grandma and Grandpa’s House [GP:ginfla]
