The day started with more rain - booms overnight and gray skies all morning - it didn't really clear up until 4 in the afternoon, with a few windows of not-rain in there here and there. The kids were up early after the sleep-overs and spent the day shuttling between condos, watching Road Runner cartoons, and playing video games... they generally did pretty well, and the use/abuse of technology was tolerated - rainy days were made for technology.
We started everyone off with a big breakfast of bacon, sausage, and pancakes, so the kids all had full bellies to loll around with. I played a lot of solitaire, and there may have been a nap in there too - in retrospect, it was a totally mellow day and I think VacationBrain had fully set in. In a way, this is what we go on vacation to do - to actually shut OFF for a little while. There was a brief clearing around lunch, and I swam with Isaac in the pool... In the late afternoon, with the sky finally cleared, we all headed to the beach for another round of shelling and sand castling. And yes, I did emerge a little in the day to do a deal for work.
And that's when the day got AWESOME: We were walking along looking out at the surf when someone spotted a dorsal fin a few hundred yards out - beyond the sand bar. One dolphin... make that two... were making their presence known. We were all pretty excited... when we spotted a fin closer in, this side of the sand bar. I shouted "Dolphin" and someone said "That's not a dolphin..." And sure enough, it was a grey fin, and then the tail poked out - grey and vertical, not flat and dark... SHARK! We all started hollering and pointing, someone grabbed a camera, and this guy (I think it was one, but someone thought there were two) was feeding on something - we saw some great thrashing - and he was pretty close to shore! After a minute or so of a show, it started moving out and further down the shore...
Towards some people who were improbably actually swimming in the rough, cold surf. A mess of kids ran up the beach to warn them. They came in for a few minutes then decided that damn it they had paid good money to get neck deep in a cold ocean and no shark was going to ruin that for them... so they went back out. No matter, the shark(s) went away. The dolphins continued their minor show way far out, but perhaps they sensed that they'd have to up their game significantly to get that level of reaction again, so they slunk off as well.
We were all tremendously jazzed, and the energy level was so elevated, it was hard to come back down. Sunset was beautiful at the beach, and we all stood together reflecting on the wonders of the vacation - it was a wonderful send-off for the people who needed to leave on Saturday.
After putting Isaac to bed, I was sent out to find Bella, who was out with cousin Jen and the cousins doing flashlight shell hunting in the moonless night. I went out once, didn't see them because they had gone so far up the beach their lights were too dim to see, went out again and finally found them: Bella was just flush with the excitement of being out late, using a flashlight, and having found a few treasures on the beach. She took some doing to get down to sleep... and we all just passed out.
Saturday
Move-out day, for MOST people... but not us! Scott and Tiff were off at 5am, Bill and Betty off by 9. Winnie and Steve were due out at 9pm, and Jen and Harman were headed to the airport Marriott to rest for an early Sunday flight... so we opened our condo to family and friends to park at! It was a clear but cooler day, and the kids spent the whole morning in the pool (it's warmer in the water than on the deck). Some went shelling, and the rough waters were bringing up tons of great shells!
We collected everyone's left over food and built a huge lunch buffet - mexican, burgers, deli sammiches, salads, crunchies and sweets. Plus the collected beverages - everything must GO! Beers, juice boxes, muscle milks, V8 juice... whatcha want?
The kids hung together as a unit until late afternoon when people started needing to go... and there were a lot of tears: This has been an incredible vacation for us, but for the kids more - they've had the run of this complex, playing hide and seek and tag around the lagoon, visiting eachother's condos, going to the beach (with a grown up of course), and alliances were formed, broken, and reformed over and over... I suspect this will be one of the vacations they remember for years to come.
When we were finally down to just the four of us, it felt unnaturally quiet. We went out to dinner at the Island Cow for some family friendly food, but we were not long for the night - Isaac melted down first and was asleep by 7:15. Bella was down by 8:30. We're in bed now at 10, with the house all packed and ready to go. We will hit the road early Sunday for breakfast, then hit our Marriott for some quality afternoon pool time. We're all ready to come home on Monday, and are just 36 hours away from seeing our puppies, sleeping in our own beds, and hitting daily life again.
Random Thoughts
There's a book for Japanese Language Learning that has sat by my bedstand all week, unopened. There's a sales presentation I was planning to do as well, that I've typed about 8 words into. I just can't get into that frame of mind on this vacation - I am truly valuing being "unplugged".
After my whiskey was consumed, I was bought a replacement - a small flask of Johnny Walker. I did try to drink a little of it, but it just didn't take for me. Thanks anyway!
I have not really had the shelling bug this time around, but Bella and Pamela have found some wonderful treasures. My happy thing has been reading to the kids at night after a long day - Isaac and I finished book 15 of Droon, and started book16 tonight. And Bella and I are loving Percy Jackson.
There's a Doctor Who on my hard drive that's been waiting for me to watch it, but that seems more like Edina viewing - not really for Sanibel, you dig?
One more update coming on the airplane Monday!
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