We had a week-long vacation and then a three day weekend on top of that, what an adventure. Last year we took the grandmothers, a nanny, and the kids to Port A to a friend’s beach house for a week. We had so much fun we decided to do it again. However, this year we changed two things, our nanny has since moved on and we went with a former nanny; and instead of two cars we rented an RV. Most of you who know me know my propensity for going a little over the top on things. So this can surely not be a surprise. What really worked out for us this year was we had a base of operations. The RV was a small 24 foot Winnebago and it was perfect. Last year we got down to the coast and all our luggage and baby safety gear took up every square inch of space we weren’t occupying. This year, we had a couch, kitchenette, fridge, and a bathroom on the bus with plenty of storage space. It was great because even though it was only a four hour trip, everyone could stretch their legs a little, stand up, grab a coke, etc. For those of you in law enforcement of course the kids were constantly in five point restraint car seats. J
Another great thing about this was the food. We were able to both take our own food at 1/3 the price of the island groceries, and also bring back what we didn’t finish. Last year as soon as we got there I had to turn around and go to the store for all the stuff we’d need. Then at the end of the trip we threw everything away. This year, mom even premade some carne guisada, and all we had to do was warm up the tortillas. Also, if a child pooped or, got too hot, or if one of the grandmothers overheated, it was time for the whole family to pack up and go. This year, we’d just mosey over to the air conditioned bus and have a seat, snack, or use the potty. Amazingly no one got sick of each other this year even on the bus.
The beach. Connor and Josephine had some pretty fun experiences this year. First Nita bet me 100 bucks that Connor would spend more time playing in the sand and even thought the only way he’d go to the water was if we dragged him out there (like we had to do last year). My theory was that a year’s worth of size and playing in puddles and mud surely would have changed his attitude. I took and won the bet before I had the tent set up. Connor got off the bus, took off his shoes and ran straight to the surf. We had a ton of fun just splashing out in the waves and watching the occasional mullet hop over a wave. Josie even liked being out there. Connor loved it so much that when we were leaving the beach on the first day to go back to the beach house he was literally praying to God that we come back to the beach. “Dear God, please let us come back to the beach. Please.” It was pretty cute.
The next day was the Texas state aquarium. Another big hit. Connor is called “the butterfly whisperer” at his little school because he’s always willing to pick up any bug and wants to pet everything. The first show we saw was the bird show. There was a nice little hawk that was flying from a perch to her trainer’s arm and at one point Connor stuck out his arm to see if the hawk would land on it. He was not concerned about the heavy leather glove she was wearing. After a tour of the grounds and a dolphin show it was time to hit the splash park. Connor went nuts at this place and so did Josie. They both just played and laughed and got soaked. They slept the sleep of the innocent on the way home. Again, we had the generator running on the RV so we all walked in to a nice comfortable bus for the ride home. No legs sticking to hot seats.
Another funny thing about the aquarium was at one point Connor and Josie were looking at one tank together and Connor was making up names of fish to explain them to Josie. Josie would point at another fish and Connor would make up another name. It was pretty darn cute.
The next two days were the beach again. The nanny we brought turned out to be a huge mistake, but that is another story. Let’s just say that she wasn’t on the last day’s beach trip. So it was Nita and I juggling the kids back and forth, and it was wonderful. Connor discovered the little bivalve mollusks (little butterfly looking clam things). When the surf is rolling out, they are exposed and they feed for a few seconds and then use a little foot to push themselves over and then bury themselves before the next wave crashes on them. It was kind of fascinating to watch. And Connor was really getting into it. He’d lie down with face right up against the sand and move at just the last second when the wave rolled in. Of course his little shadow had to do it as well. She doesn’t have quite the speed of Connor in ducking the waves and got a couple of big splashes she didn’t quite expect. But she was a trooper and kept on doing it because big brother was doing it.
And of course we fed the seagulls the left over pancakes and biscuits from breakfast. Connor loved this as much as last year and Josie did too….for about five minutes. The problem is Josie has this little thing where she likes to carry food in each hand. She’ll take her time to eat it, but she just likes to have it. She also likes to eat peanut butter crackers like some folks eat oreos. She’ll break them open and lick off the peanut butter and then eat the crackers…sometimes. In any case once seagulls are all stirred up, they won’t leave until ALL the food is gone. So the clashing of these two tendencies led to the inevitable. A seagull got brave and dove in for the cracker. Josie moved to save her cracker and the seagull got a little bit of knuckle and the cracker. Josie HOWLED and took quite a while to settle down. I’m not sure if it was the missing skin or the cracker probably a bit of both. She even said, “bird take cracker away” about 20 times in a row (pretty good for 18 months btw). Daddy kissed her hand and gave her another cracker. Poor thing, but it was kind of funny too. Within a few minutes she was bounding down the beach and lying in the surf with brother.
The last night we all went to dinner and we stopped at a little souvenir shop beforehand. The big tourist trap item is hermit crabs with painted shells. The first place we went, they wouldn’t allow us to hold one (we’re about to find out why). The second place had a nice little girl who said she’d be happy to let Connor hold one. So Connor picked one out and held it. Remember he wants to hold and pet everything. So he picks another one to hold. Meanwhile Nita is asking if we should get one and goes so far as to call a friend back in Austin who actually has one. As she’s getting the care and feeding lowdown, Connor wants to hold just one more. This time the crab clamps down on the little girl’s palm, for what felt like 10 minutes to us. It seriously must have been about 20 seconds and the girl was in tears. That little hermit crab was not letting go. The shop owner said, “Go put it under the water, he’ll let go, I’d hate to cut the leg off.” I never really thought these options were on the table. Needless to say, that was the end of our hermit crab shopping.
We did one last stop at the beach after dinner and dragged some more sand in the bus. The company we used to rent was American Adventure RV rentals. They were wonderful with us and any and every issue I had they gave 24/7 service. It was my first time in an RV and frankly there were just a few things I’d forgotten in the orientation that they patiently walked me through remotely. They were very helpful. The drive back was relatively uneventful since all the traffic was going the other way.
All in all it was a very successful trip. Being the only male over three years old meant that I loaded and unloaded the bus each time. I even lost a couple of pounds on the trip. But it was all worth it and was such a great time. I even had a dream the night we got home about loading the bus. Seriously, I did.
We got back on the Friday before Memorial day. So we had plenty of time to unwind and still have some fun. Of course we had our big golf tournament at the club so I went to play with a buddy on Sunday. He then suggested we bring the whole family over for some fajitas and pool time. We did and it was a fantastic day. And then on Memorial day we took the kids to our club pool where Connor and Josie played for hours. They got so tired that Josie slept on my shoulder on the ride home (in my golf cart). Finally, after naps we hoped back in the golf cart and headed over to my mom’s for dinner. The kids went out back and played in the park again for another hour and a half. So there was a lot of playing, running around, swimming, and sleeping. What a fantastic week. Connor and Josie start swimming lessons on Wed, so the new adventure begins. They are both quite the little water bugs, man that was an easy 100.
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