We were supposed to take our great trip outside. Our “exploring the national parks” trip. It was going to be epic – 15 days, 5 national parks, a flight to Denver, thousands of miles traveling in the west, and grand memories. But, we weren’t sure about flying these days – and our flight was delayed by day throwing off all my plans. The parks are on a phasing in reopening and we weren’t sure if all the things we wanted to see would be opened. There would be multiple hotel rooms in many states – albeit the western ones with low COVID-19 numbers. And we just were a little uneasy when we had to make the decision.
So, we canceled. I called Frontier Airlines. Waited for an hour on hold, only to be accidentally cut off. Waited another hour on hold. Worth my wait when I received a full refund for our flights. I contacted the 5-6 other reservations I had made. Most refunded. One did not. It was a sad feeling to have it all wiped out with no possibility of returning to it this year. But, what’s done is done.
We started considering other options. Not because we HAVE to go somewhere, but we thought that maybe there was some place to go that would be a good getaway without much risk.
We contacted Jeremy’s aunt and uncle who had bought a house in Florida a little over a year ago to see if we could come down for a visit. They were more than generous and opened their home to us. So, we made the plans, picked our dates, the girls got excited, and then Florida’s numbers started to go up and up and up. We kept our eye on this county’s numbers – lower than Wayne County, moving at a slow crawl. We declared it safe.
So, on July 4th, we loaded up the suitcases – packed a “sanitary bag” to house Clorox wipes, masks, hand sanitizers, etc – and hit the road. 902 miles (one way), 13 hours + stops (one way), 7 states, and 8 days. It wasn’t epic, but it was still pretty big. (Especially when the farthest you have traveled in the past 6 months is about 45 minutes in the car!)
We made it there with a few stops. Rest areas for bathrooms this trip. Gas stations for, well, just gas (no snacks). Sonic for a special boost (lemon berry slush for the win… throwback from 1998 when I lived in Kansas for the summer). Krispy Kreme for a HOT NOW doughnut – the only way to eat Krispy Kreme. A hotel with an OUTDOOR pool; we were the only ones enjoying it for over an hour. It was magnificent.
And then, we were there – Palm Coast, Florida. Home of Jim and Diane. They had hamburgers and hot dogs ready for our first night’s supper served on their back deck.
Clean sheets on the beds.
And a tour which included a trip to the upper deck. This was where the girls had wanted to head “first thing” … it looked pretty cool in the pictures, and it lived up to the hype.
It was a beautiful location – just a tiny little walk to the end of the road, over the small dune, and right onto the beach. See that blue house on the right. That was our place as seen from the dune.
See the dune? That’s how far it is from our place.
The beach is where we headed right after supper to enjoy the waves and sand
And the wildlife… dead crabs, lesser egrets, egrets, and a sting ray!! (The guy said he caught a 6 foot spinner shark – yes, shark!! – at this spot the night before. He let the sting ray go, not sure about the shark.)
Our one and only family picture was taken this night because I said, “If we don’t do it now, we will forget.” (and we did).
From then on, the week was a blur of cool retreats inside, slathering sunscreen, walks on the beach, catching waves, slathering sunscreen, carrying umbrellas and chairs, digging in the sand, eating supper, talking together, slathering sunscreen, and sleeping.
Beach and sand made for good walking, good building, and good sitting.
The girls played and played in the waves. Waves that crashed on the shoreline. And as they got braver, they ventured out past the break and rode up and down on waves with Jeremy and I farther out. It was so fun to watch them become more courageous both with the ones that crashed on the shallow water at them and with the deeper ones. They also learned to “read” the waves to know when they would crash. We only misread a few… :)
Madison was really good at grabbing shells as the waves sucked back out and revealed their treasures. Jeremy shell hunted with her some, too. She found a lot of scallop type shells. She also started finding parts of a more spiral-like shell. She spent a lot of time doing this. Ellie spent most of the same amount of time digging/cooking in the sand.
I made supper a few nights for all of us. I tried to recreate the magic of the rice bowls from Father’s Day. I just used the chipotle chicken recipe with the avocado crema; I think a sauce is what makes the bowl. Jeremy did a great job grilling the chicken – juicy and perfectly done. They were amazing. The girls felt the chicken was a little spicy, so maybe the milder chicken was better for them. Either way, no one really complained :)
Intermission…. because this is a lot of pictures!
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