Florida Survival Guide - Week 1

This week's "lessons learned" come to you straight from the Sunshine State.  Actually, it's a week and a half, but who's really keeping track. 

Jet lag - UGH!  We finally landed in Florida last Wednesday and after 40+ hours of travel.  Luckily, the girls and I had only really catnapped our way through the travel and were almost on schedule when we landed.  We were on the right time zone within a matter of days and without a lot of heartache over it. 

Growing Gills   We are taking full advantage of being in a warm state with many many pools -- we got the girls signed up for swimming lessons through the city.  They started their two week session on Monday and by Thursday I could really see vast improvement.  They can swim!!!   They can also jump off the diving board and swim to the side.  I can't wait to see the final outcome next week. 

Discovering History  My mom had the day off on Friday, so we planned a trip to St. Augustine.    We settled on going to one of our favorite restaurants for lunch, Columbia, and visiting the fort, Castillo de San Marcos.  I looked up the fort to find out times they were open and found out that they are doing a living history demonstration on Fridays and Saturdays.  Specifically, they were going to fire the cannons and muskets, while having people dressed in period apparel.   After a lovely lunch, we headed for the fort.  The demonstration was fantastic.  You could tell the rangers and reenactors were having a good time, even though the day was a warm one.  They answered questions ranging from what did you eat to why are you wearing a full wool suit.  Though the girls noted that the steps and the wall for this city was much smaller than the ones in China. 

Beach Barbies Today we headed to Daytona Beach and met up with my sister and her brood.  We played in the sand and surf for hours.  Since all the girls know how to swim (and Ronnie and I were right there), we started teaching the girls how to body surf.  Sarah caught a wave, but didn't like the saltwater up her nose. Ashlyn wasn't so sure about the process so she hung back on the beach.  But, Holly and Callie got hooked right away. They really got the hang of it when I caught a few waves with them and went way further than they had been going.  We tuned their technique and we played and splashed around until the skies started threatening rain.  We cleaned up and headed for the Ocean Deck, one of our favorite beach dives, for an early dinner.  Of course, a trip to the beach wouldn't be complete without lessons in sunscreen.  I think we all could have done with one more application of Coppertone....  Oh well!