Last Sunday we snuck out of town at the pre-dawn hour of 5:00 a.m. Although Connor and I fell back to sleep for about an hour, Chloe was having none of that. She patiently waited for us to wake up and put in a movie, which is my kids' favorite part of any vacation- the in-car DVD action.
We got to the coast about 1:30, having only stopped for one meal along the way. Chloe was too excited to take a nap, although she did finally fall asleep when we turned on 98, meaning she slept for 15 minutes. We hit the beach right away, eventually dragging ourselves to the Bud & Alley taco stand for a late lunch of cheese dip, fish tacos, and beers. We were lucky to get hold of our rental agent, who allowed us to check in at our house early. We were firmly entrenched two hours later when the rest of the Chockleys arrived.
After they got in, we enjoyed the rest of the day sitting on the roof-top deck of our house and running up and down the 49 steps (50 if you like even numbers and felt compelled to count the step buried in the sand at the bottom) separating us from the beach.
Monday dawned bright and gorgeous, and we hit the beach as soon as we could. We soon discovered, however, that the purple flag flying on the beach meant "dangerous marine life." I figured it out by reading the sign under the flag, while Chloe learned her lesson the hard way- the back of her left knee and her right ankle received lashes from the tentacles of one of these:
No matter- a little vinegar and meat tenderizer did the trick, and we spent the rest of the day in very shallow water, staying alert for these hard-to-miss creatures. That night we drank lots of wine while the guys grilled some grouper and I made crabmeat/pecan relish to top it with. One of the best parts of vacation is the daily trip to Goatfeathers for fresh fish. It beats the hell out of a weekly trip to Schnuck's!
We finished the night on the square in Seaside, eating crepes and drinking one last bottle of wine while the Roys argued passionately on the subject of sugar. Then we skipped home in the rain to thank Mimi a thousand times for staying home with the sleeping children.
2 comments:
You've been out of town?
And I question driving the kids to Wolfchase ... ok, not that bad :)
Looks like it was a beautiful first day, can't wait to see more pics!
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