St. Augustine 2013/Libby's Week at the Beach

Libby’s Week at the Beach (as told to Michael)

Mommy, citing fatigue from a long vacation, is allowing me, Libby, to write the blog post about our annual beach trip. Even though I’m ‘so so so so so so tired’ myself after battling waves and digging up sand crabs all week while sleeping in a closet, I’ll gladly give my best recap of the week’s events because that’s just the kind of helpful girl I am!

The Night Before: I told Mama before I went to sleep that in the morning, I’ll call, “Mama, Mama, Mama!” And then I’m gonna watch some movie, then just zip on to da beach! “When I get there, I’ll be wearin’ shorts, so if the waves aren’t too big, I’ll go in a little to my legs.”

Day 1: Saturday started off with a flurry of activity. With Mommy running around packing coolers and tote bags and Daddy making what seemed like ‘eleventy twenty’ trips out to the car, it made it almost impossible for me to enjoy my morning ‘M&M’ (milk and movie). Soon, though, we were all in the car heading to Florida. I’m still not sure where Commissioner was during the whole car ride down – I suspect either in the cooler or on the roof because she certainly wasn’t anywhere near me! On the way down, I tried to be helpful with comments like “Is it going to be a long time?” and “why is it going to be a long time?” and relating how just the night before that my Minnie doll had walked all the way to the beach while I watched from my bed on my ‘just pretend’ television. Despite the fact it hadn’t taken Minnie long at all, the car ride was indeed long, not helped by what Daddy referred to as “Henry County traffic”, as if I’m supposed to know what that means.

When we finally pulled into St. Augustine, I did not get to go directly to the beach as promised, but instead had to wait for everyone (Mommy & Daddy, Gigi & Papa, and Mimi & Diddy) to move about a thousand bags from the cars to the house. However, we eventually did get to go to the beach, and I promised that we did not need to change clothes as I was not going to get too deep in the ocean. That promise lasted for at least 30 seconds until I had Diddy and others taking me out into the waves. The water was cold cold cold, but I didn’t mind!
 

Day 2: Sunday was my first full day at the beach, and I can summarize it with two words – ‘Sand Crabs’! Who knew such fascinating creatures existed? Get this – sand crabs will surf in to the shore on a wave, and wherever the wave stops they will take their tiny claws and just dig dig dig into the sand. Papa showed me my first sand crab and put it into the net I was carrying around. I picked up the crab and it tried to dig between my fingers! When I put the crab down onto the sand, it immediately dug a hole in the sand and vanished forever. I soon learned what fun it was to put a sand crab down on the beach but dig it up again before it had a chance to dig down deep into the sand. Rest assured, being the lover of all creatures that I am, I was able to recognize how long the crabs were in my net and when they needed to go ‘dig their home’ in the beach. The rest of the morning I had everyone hunting sand crabs for me!

Later that day we went out to eat at a seafood restaurant. Naturally I had an entrée of blackeyed peas! 
 

Day 3: Monday we were back at the beach, minus Daddy and Papa who went to play golf. Ironically, I remember the golf stories from Daddy much better than my own memories from the beach. From what Daddy and Papa told me, they managed to play 30 holes of golf that day despite the flooding rains occurring all over Florida. On the 13^th hole of the first course, they got stuck out in the strongest downpour either one of them had ever been in on a golf course, and by the time they made it back to the clubhouse they and everything they had with them was completely soaked! The course had to close when the volume of fish swimming across the 18^th green made chipping and putting impossible. What did they do then? What any sane person would do, they rang out their shirts, socks, shoes and golf bags and headed for a drier golf course! They somehow got in another 18 holes before the next downpour hit…

I also loved playing games on Diddy's ipad in the morning and during "down time."

That night, with the rain still coming down, we decided to have Pizza and Movie night! I spent the evening eating pizza on the floor while watching Peter Pan for the first time. I like the scenes with the alligator the best! He sure didn’t get along with Captain Hook. During the movie, poor Commissioner had to sit up in a chair by herself because she kept trying to eat my pizza!

Day 4: Inspired by the heroic story of the alligator in Peter Pan the night before, we headed to the Alligator Farm in St. Augustine, a zoo devoted almost exclusively to alligators and crocodiles. What a place! There were albino alligators that are all white. There was Maximo, a 15-foot long, 1500 pound alligator! I have no idea why Mommy and Daddy were chanting “Max-i-mo Max-i-mo Max-i-mo” but I just pretended not to notice. Sometimes it’s best with the parents to just let things go! We went into a room with a bunch of fossils and live creatures - I pointed out all the snakes (“I call them ‘nakes”). We got to hear a program in which they brought out a snake, a bunny rabbit and a turtle. I only got to pet the turtle -  I really wanted to give the bunny a big, squeezy hug! But the best part of the day was getting to feed the alligators! There were hundreds of alligators swimming in the lagoon, and I got to throw them handfuls of alligator food. I would say “hey guys, come here” and throw them more alligator food. At one point a worker told me to hop of the railing in case one of the alligators jumped up and tried to bite my leg. I thought that was so funny!

Day 5: Wednesday was more fun at the beach! Everybody kept asking if I wanted to go to the pool, but I can go to my pool or Mimi’s pool or Gigi’s pool back home. I was there for the beach! Last year I liked jumping into the waves, but this year was more about running into the waves and then running back out, and also about swimming ‘in the deep end’!

That night Mommy and Daddy went to dinner by themselves, so I got to have Mimi and Diddy and Gigi and Papa all babysit me! We went out to dinner at another seafood restaurant, which was the perfect place for me to have my favorite meal – cheese quesadilla and rice!

I was fairly nautical/patriotic all week.

Day 6: Thursday was the 4^th of July and another beach day! Much of my time at the beach was devoted to sitting in a ‘bath’, otherwise known as a big hole in the sand. Daddy started by just digging a couple shovelfuls of sand to build something, but I was much more interested in the hole that just kept getting bigger and bigger! I had everybody either digging the hole or bringing me buckets of water to fill the hole. Luckily for me everybody likes to help me out!

Check out the stegosaurus made by Diddy on the side of my tub.

That night we had burgers and hot dogs and French fries for dinner, with plenty of ketchup! Then I got to stay up until dark to see if there would be any fireworks. I did see some excitement on the tv – my favorite singer Barry Manilow was performing at July 4^th show in Washington! Later I went outside with Papa and Daddy to see if there were any fireworks. Papa even brought his ‘big light’. I did see a lot of red, white and blue lights on the beach, which seemed really patriotic to me.  But they turned out to just be police cars!  The police didn’t stop some people from shooting off fireworks, and eventually they got so loud I thought it would be better if we watched from inside. I was only ‘a little scared’ but Papa was happy to get inside too because he thought we would get arrested!

Day 7: Our last day in St. Augustine was one last time to soak up some rays at the beach. And by ‘soak up some rays’, I mean remain in a constant flurry of activity. I was catching more sand crabs, riding on Papa’s raft, swimming in the deep pools of water right next to the shore, digging another big hole, running in and out of the water and overall just living it up one more time! Our cousin, Beverly, (on Diddy's side) came out to play with us Friday morning, too! Another fun person to help entertain me! Oh and I forgot to mention the very first thing I had to do each day at the beach – use nature’s giant potty!

It's nice that Daddy's feet are all covered, but check out Mama's  cool stone fortress on the side of my tub.

There ARE sand crabs in here!

What a time we had at the beach, but I tell you what – after 7 days when I just “played and played and played”, and entertained two parents, four grandparents, a dog, some crabs, some alligators and countless strangers – a girl needs her rest!