Maybe you always are prone to return to the place you vacationed most as a child. We weren't a vacationing family, but for me, out of anywhere else, I've been to Fort Myers, Florida the most. That's partially why CJ and I left for vacation there last week. Plus, my parents' friends own a condo on the beach and graciously allowed us to use it, so that played a big part in the decision too.
So here's what we did, mostly in pictures:
CJ's first dip in the Gulf of Mexico.
Saturday: Our first (and only) full day on the beach because we got burnt so badly neither one of us could move much the next day. Turns out the Florida sun is a lot hotter than it is in Indiana!
Seriously, does life get much better than this?
After leaving the condo, if we walked north, we found the more commercialized, public part of the beach. If we walked south after leaving the condo, we were able to enjoy the more private side. I don't think we ever ran across more than ten people at one time on this side of the beach.
On Thursday, we went to the north side of the beach, which is where I've always been. It wasn't crowded like it would be during spring break, but compared to the secluded part of the beach we enjoyed, it was.
I was trying to get a picture of the stingray, which looks like an orange leaf in between our two heads. I didn't get a good shot obviously, but I kind of like the result of just our two shadows in the water. Oh, and the stingray? There were like five more swimming extremely close to the shore.
Yeah, we bought a cheap set of sand toys.
I even got in on the action and made a little sand turtle.
Here's CJ's finished product: a sand castle heart for me.
See the reddish-brown ground covering? Those are hundreds and hundreds of crabs migrating somewhere for the night.
Last night on the beach
And, five points not covered in pictures:
1) Lesson learned: probably not best to take your camera on the beach without a pouch for it. I had mine safely stored away in my bag, but then sand blew in the bag. I was able to salvage the pictures, but the camera is shot. Thank goodness for an iPhone and for packing an extra camera -- otherwise, we wouldn't have any pictures past day two.
2) We went to a janky flea market on Sunday and saw an old guy getting arrested.
3) We went to both outlet malls on Monday and scored some awesome deals. Our best deals? I bought a $75 Columbia fleece jacket for $18. We saved $256 at Bass Stores (clothing, not shoes or outdoor goods) because all women's clothing was 70% off and men's was 60% off. The entire Gap was on sale for 40% off. My biggest disappointment (and my main reason for going to the outlet malls) was that I wasn't able to score any good deals at the Le Creuset outlet store.
4) When we were at the Gap outlet store, some German guy undressed in the middle of the store. He was wearing tightie whities. And he argued with the clerk that there wasn't any problem with him undressing in plain view. That might be my favorite part of the entire trip.
5) The pets fared the trip quite well. Bridget stayed with Amanda and her cat, Marabelle. For the first few days, the cats would apparently follow each other around the house, then one would turn around, they'd hiss at each other, and then they'd walk around the house some more. After that, they were fast friends, and Bridget was not happy to come home. And Henry stayed with my parents, mostly tied to a tree with a long lead. (We hated it, but our only other option would be to board him for $35/day.) Within the first few minutes, he broke part of his collar. A few days later, he got his lead twisted around his leg and my dad had to cut it off. He managed to break a padlock. At one point, he jumped on my mom's back (standing up, he's as tall as my mom) and he dragged my dad around wherever they went. Needless to say, I do believe my dad was the happiest person that we were back and took Henry back home with us.
Now it's back in the grind for us. CJ is back at work today. I have a house that is clean (thanks, Mom & Dad!), but I have three bags that need to be unpacked. The weeds sprouted like crazy in our garden while we were away, and since we hadn't mowed for over a week, our yard took off too, and it needs to be raked. Plus, my book and syllabus for Finance arrived, and it looks like I have plenty of homework for Thursday.
Welcome back to the real world. Ugh.
No comments:
Post a Comment