Family Reunion - Wednesday

The dads were scheduled to play golf for the day, so they got up and out early to have a chance to go to the driving range for a bit before hitting the course.  I decided to sleep in instead of getting up to work out - it is vacation after all!  As soon as the kids were up, they had a bite of breakfast and were ready for the pool.  I had to foil their plans, though, and insist that they get some homework done.  It was not a popular decision, but they did it anyway and then headed for the water.

Just before lunch, I got my kids out and took them shopping.  They needed some time out of the water during the middle of the day since they were all getting a bit burnt no matter how much sunscreen we put on them.  The last time we got together, we did a "cousins' birthday", where the kids all drew each other's names and then got that person a birthday gift.  All of the kids (except our little one) remembered this from last time and really wanted to do a birthday celebration again, so we needed to get gifts for the cousins they picked. 

I took them to lunch at McDonald's, where our oldest remarked about the cashier, "Mom, she's so nice and friendly, not like at home."  I had to explain that customer service is a bit different in the south and that he should remember what it was like to have someone be so polite when helping him.  Hopefully it made at least a bit of an impression.  After that, we headed to Target to get the gifts and a few other things we needed, like pencils since our older daughter didn't bring one and needed it to do her homework (she had to borrow her cousin's) and everyone got a new book.  We then came back closer to the house to wander the little shopping center at the end of the street that has a bunch of gift shops.  Since the kids were incredibly patient for that, we all got ice cream at a little shop called Frozen Moo - I love that name!  It was good ice cream, too.  I realized while we were sitting there enjoying our ice cream that I was supposed to go out for a photo tour/boat ride that afternoon with the other moms and Mike's niece - I had completely forgotten about it!  I gathered the kids up and made a beeline for the car to try to get back in time to leave with them.

I did make it just in time and ran inside to gather my things to go, after making a quick phone call to set the details of a visit from a friend of ours the next day.  In the chaos, I managed to grab my camera, but forgot to take the battery out of the charger.  Of course, I discovered this on the boat as we were pulling away fron the dock.  It was a bit disappointing, but in the end turned out to be a good thing because I was able to look around and pay attention to the scenery instead of thinking about taking pictures, which often makes me miss out on the bigger scene.

The guy who runs the tours is a photographer who takes small groups out in his nineteen-foot, flat-bottom boat.  He has an outboard motor for getting places quickly and a little electric motor for getting up close to the birds or other animals without scaring them.  We headed into the inland waterway and almost immediately Mike's niece spotted some dolphins.  It turned out to be two mother-calf pairs, along with a male who stayed on the outskirts. The mothers and babies were swimming around and playing together, so we spent a long time sitting and watching them.  They would come within a couple of feet of the boat, so we got to see them really well.  We didn't want to leave, but we did want to see more of the area, so we moved on and motored further inland.

I got to see my first oyster beds on this trip.  The tide was going out, so they became more exposed the longer we were out there and they are impressive structures, with the shells all building on top of each other.  There were some wonderful birds out feeding, including willets, grackels, royal terns, great egrets, and two of my favorites, the great blue heron and the snowy egret.  We heard the hooting of a great horned owl, but didn't see it.  At our furthest point inland, we saw another pair of dolphins, a mother with an older calf, who were feeding.  We could see them herd the fish by pushing a wave of water ahead of them and then they'd swim up from underneath and grab the fish.  It was an amazing thing to watch and really fascinating to see how the mother was teaching the calf to do this.  After watching them for a few minutes, the dolphins swam off and we started back toward the dock since the no-see-ums were starting to come out.  My sister-in-law and I weren't getting bitten, but the others were, so it was time to get back.

So even though I didn't have a camera, it was a wonderful trip.  Our guide was great, the animal life was fantastic, and it was a gorgeous evening.  It was definitely worth the time and money!

When we got back, the guys had dinner started.  Mike's brother had ordered caviar from a friend of his, so we had that for our appetizer.  We introduced Mike's niece and nephew to it, since they had never tried it before and we have been determined to get them to try new foods on this trip.  One liked it and one didn't, but they both at least gave it a try.  For dinner, we had Korean beef in lettuce cups, with fried rice and noodles from a local Chinese restaurant.  A mixing of cultures, but it all tasted really good together!  After cleaning up, I put our kids to bed and then a bunch of us took a walk on the beach.  It was still beautiful out, so we had a lovely stroll.

It was a long and busy day, but fun in a lot of ways.