Our Family Road Trip - Part 2

On day 3 of our trip, we arrived at our destination mid-afternoon, dropped our luggage at the condo and went to meet "the Germans" as we affectionately refer to H's big family.  They were very welcoming and lavished us with gifts and a Texas-sized bbq cook-out at their condo.  

After a good night's sleep, we hit the beach early the next day.  I was so proud of our girls!  They did lightyears better with the ocean than they did last year.  Instead of panicking and climbing us like trees, they were begging for us to go out with them and bob in the waves.  Bobbing in the waves, by the way, is very difficult to photograph with any clarity.

We went back to the condo for lunch and J took the girls to meet up with the Germans at their part of the beach while Z and I took a little snooze.  Then we all lounged around the pool at their condo, which was also a huge hit with my kids (surprisingly enough).  The outlet mall was calling to the international crowd, so we tagged along and let the girls shop for a souvenir there.  Three guesses what they got.  More stuffed animals.

The next day we decided to catch the free trolley to the tip of the island and see what shops we could check out while we waited for the houseful of German teenagers to get moving.  This was a good idea, in theory.  We mailed some postcards, ate some ice cream, walked the pier, then caught the trolley again only to get off a little earlier than we should have.  Friends, do not vacation in Florida in August if you are hoping to escape Texas heat.  The wait for the next trolley included dripping sweat, a little sunburn, two kids in ant beds, some warm tap water, and a whole lot of whining.  When we (finally!) got on the next trolley, J decided that would be a good time to take pictures.  The smiles below are totally fake.

But we ended up at a little shop near our condo where we bought more postcards and.....one more stuffed animal.  At least this time it was a fish, something sort of related to our location.  

We spent that evening having dinner with the Germans and trying to squeeze in meaningful conversation between kid distractions at a restaurant.  I do wish we had been able to spend more time with H's sweet family.  That is our take-away for the proverbial "next time"....spend less time getting wherever we are going and more time being there.  

To be continued...