The twelve hour trip in the car with the four girls was dreaded, but Jim was smart enough to think ahead and on the way home from work on the day we left he stopped at Best Buy and bought a dual DVD for the van. THE BEST PURCHASE!! It made the trip down so easy. We did stop half way through for the night, but we drove a good 7-8 hours and only had to stop once. The girls never once said they had to go to the bathroom (they were too occupied to think about it) and only one time in the beginning of the trip did Jordan say “Are we there yet?” I think she was just excited. My only regret is that we didn’t take more movies, cause they got kind of bored on the way back since they had to repeat them.
Vacation was wonderful! Very relaxing and fun. It was so nice to have Jim with us for the whole week. My parents came and stayed with us and were built-in babysitters for the week! And my sister, BIL, Nephew and Niece got a place of their own so they were down there too! It was lots of sun, and sand…lot’s of sand—in hair, on clothes, in the pages of my book, in crooks and crevices…
We played on the beach!
We saw a rainbow!
We practiced our “gymnastics”!
We posed for family pictures!
We cooled off in a fun fountain!
We ate out a lot!—I GAINED 6.6 pounds in two weeks…ugh, we won’t even go there. One of the restaurants claimed to have “The Best Seafood” and it was nothing but a cheesy, greasy, buttery, fried fest…I guess that’s good seafood in the South?!?! We had better luck at the chains---a crab boil from Joe’s Crab Shack hit the spot…we had some good ribs from Sticky Fingers and Jim and I had a wonderful early anniversary dinner at the Bonefish Grill. We also had a yummy Italian lunch at Luigi’s and visited the “Pittsburgh Bar” –Oscar’s (I THINK that’s what it’s called).
But here’s some crazy stuff:
On Monday we were sitting on the beach—Jim was back in the condo with the baby…My sister and I decided to stroll down to the shore and splash around with the kids for awhile. Angie found a spot to sit with Mallory (my niece) where the waves lapped up and made a nice little pool for the baby to splash in. Jordan joined them. I took Ava and Isaac (my nephew) and waded into the water. We weren’t far from shore—the waves were crashing at knee level on me and were, at most, hitting Ava’s chest. I was looking back at my sister, enjoying the water, Surreally, I remember every detail of the next moments and have since played them out in slow motion with not a drop of water out of place. I turned back slowly to the horizon just as a wave hit my knee. I cast my eyes onto the water in front of me, a ripple of glistening glass between the waves. It was very clear, the sun was above and was lighting up the ocean floor. Mind you, we were in less than 2 feet of water. At the exact moment that I lowered my eyes, I saw it. A gray shadow swimming stealthily parallel to the shore. It was as long as Ava—3 feet maybe? About 8 inches in diameter, if I had to take a guess. As soon as I saw it I knew exactly what it was. I’ve watched enough Discovery Channel to know. I’ve watched them swim at the zoo. I know the shape…It was a SHARK!!! I can’t even believe it now, but it was there. I could have bent down and touched it, if I was so inclined. Instead, I quickly turned on a dime and hurried back to shore amidst protests from my nephew. When Angie saw me, she knew something was up, I guess my face had drained…I was afraid to say what I saw, and I didn’t want the kids to hear but I whispered to Angie what I had seen. I don’t know what the chances are of seeing a shark at the beach. Dear readers, has it happened to you?!? Granted it was a small guy, but still, It could take a good hunk from a thigh or something!
Every time I got in the water I kept seeing it…but not “it”…I kept replaying it in my mind. Always watching the water to see if I could recreate the moment..the way the waved crashed, how the sun was shining, WAS it just a shadow?…NO. I couldn’t recreate it, because it was probably once in a lifetime for me. My brush with a shark in the ocean waters. EEEEK!
And that was vacation in a BIG nutshell! Can’t wait until next year!!!
1 Reader Remarks:
It's kind of funny, Christian. Chris and I went to Myrtle Beach with our family, and we went to just about the same restaurants. Absolutely, love the Bonefish Grill!
As for the shark, I hate to say it, but you probably weren't imagining it. Most of the time, they are just sand sharks. I don't think their teeth are sharp enough to actually take a chunk out of you though, but I guess it depends on the size. However, this year, someone a few hundred feet down the shore from us actually caught a real shark while fishing from the shore. It definitely was not a sand shark, but a baby shark of some kind. Chris took Christian to see it, and he said it definitely had teeth. It was still alive when the man caught it, but he didn't want to throw it back in so close to the shore where people were swimming. He assumed it had gotten stuck in the waves and was too little to make it back out to deeper water. You can check it out in my vacation photos from this year. It made a great photo op for Chrisitan!
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Gimme some sugar! <3