My Toes Are Curling

On this adventure Dad got to come along. We needed him to drive since we were geocaching and Me and the Kyd alone (well, without the Dad) geocaching can either be harrowing, expensive or worse.

Most of the caches we've found in the area are not typical of what we were spoiled with in St. Louis We are appreciative of the opportunity to add to our numbers, and we are very appreciative of the time and effort cachers have in putting out caches in this area (since we've done nothing to reciprocate) but, there's not always a lot to see once we get to the cache site.

This cache could have been one of those, but, it was not. True, the cache itself fell into the the Typical guardrail cache category, but we took advantage of the location and turned it into a bit more: a perfect late afternoon.

We walked along the roadway and looked over the guardrail to watch the turtles on their afternoon outing to the underwater logs.

Always with a camera, I managed to get a few pictures of the Kyd. I liked the shots where she is safe and sound, feet firmly planted on solid ground. SHE liked the idea of sitting on the guard rail, thousands of feet above momma and baby turtles, making my toes curl.

And That Wraps THAT Up

Well, it wasn't exactly the summer of my blog-hopes. The twice-a-week outings to the beach on the lake never quite materialized. Days at the Farm with Mawaw and Papaw never came along. The shopping day at the Outlet Mall -- thwarted by a stomach thing and then later by a friend thing. Yet, there were very few Do Nothing Days. How is that?

Pizza: It's All in the Family

DadintheFam spent his time in Alabama being wined and dined to tune of his first ever bout of gout. While he was living the rich life, we were looking for cheap and easy. Turns out that friend that Kyd brought along is not the most experimental eater. Pizza. Chicken Strips. And, eventually, I found out she'll eat the occasional lasagna. Naturally, I discovered this on our third pizza joint that had, ironically, the most expensive lasagna and the best pizza. This was a little place in Mobile, AL (next to the scrapbook store!) called "Brother's Pizza". Our two places prior to this were "Mama's" and "Father's" . I guess to find the "Sistas" we just had to look at ourselves.

In Which Some of Us Have a Vacay and One of Us Does Not

The deep south in August.

Replete with Oil Spill. NOW, we're talking F-U-N.

The Dad of the Fam was presented with an opportunity to head to the deep south in July.

Without us.

Natural, spoiled-grapes attitude was to chide and ridicule and ask, "Sheesh .. who would REALLY WANT to go to Mobile, Alabama in July when the beaches are awash with fresh oil?" But then, I looked at the hotel's website. Turns out, DadoftheFam wasn't just going to a little hotel, but a history-rich-five-star-resort in a boutique-rich town on Mobile Bay. Sounds good to US.

Being an only child, and an almost teenage only, sometimes time away with just mom and dad can leave a bit to be desired. So, Kyd brought along a friend and off we all went.

While the DadoftheFam was in meetings all day and most of the night, the three of us braved horrible heat, ill timed thunderstorms, more heat and more ill timed thunderstorms to get in A LOT of shopping, even more pizza eating, a bit of sight seeing and not nearly enough beach time.

The beach at the Grand Hotel in Fairhope, AL where we first stayed, was small, and protected by three booms to catch the oil. It seemed to work as it was nice and clean. The same could not be said for the beach on Gulf Shores behind the little Holiday Inn. That beach had the distinctive smell of petroleum, very few seashells and left behind a glycerin like residue on our skin that took an hour to scrub.

Regardless of the beach, the girls and I had a few little adventures.

Hey Sister Sister

Leaving our "Big City" we left behind a lot of at-our-finger-tips opportunities. One of those, which the Kyd really enjoyed was musical theater. Our little town is fortunate enough to have a very nice, seemingly modern performance venue. (I'll avoid going into great detail on the controversy surrounding this theater, as it's recently changed hands and been purchased by the city, since, as a private enterprise it was not breaking even).

During the last week of July they offered workshops, performance and friend making opportunities through a two-man (ok, man and woman) traveling workshop from Missoula Children's Theater.

The production was "Treasure Island" and the Kyd had the part of one of Jim's sisters. She saw a lot of small ensemble stage time and got to wear at least one, if rather hot, rather cool costume (uhhh not shown here). They rehearsed for a week and had two performances on Saturday afternoon. It was not bad for a week of work with instructors they've never met and working with other kids they have never seen. Most importantly, she increased her friends on her Facebook page -- meeting a few girls from her district that she'll meet up with again next year at the senior high.

Reliving the Past

Our Neighbors. After a year and a half, we were able to get The Anzalones (minus one) to brave the straight-as-arrow drive and visit US. Man, have we missed them! Although, I believe the first words from Liz weren't "Hi, how you doing?" or "MY GOD WE MISSED YOU SO MUCH", I believe they were not far from, "When you said BIG CROSS, you REALLY MEANT .. BIG CROSS."

We played tour guide-- or rather *I* played tour guide, Liz played mostly interested tourist and the kids played the part of kids being drug around small towns being made to look at things they really did not care about. Tropical Sno was even closed.

Effingham weather didn't disappoint either. About the same time Liz lowered the lid on the grill, a typical storm blew up. Touch and go, not quite sure if it was going to make it here or go around. This time there was no going around and we got to show off Mother Nature -- Effingham Style. Some of the highest winds recorded all summer. We watched the lake rise and fall 9-10" and discussed "Seeking cover". Instead, the kids played Wii and Liz and I had a chance to catch up on gossip.

Traditions -- with a Twist

Swimming and Tie Dye had become a summer tradition for us and this was something that I wanted to continue. I thought it might help the kids stay in touch with what they had. The Tie Dye was toned down a bit and they used squeeze bottles to draw colorful designs on their shirts. But now .... swimming. That took on a brand new dimension. Gone was the safe, clean, clear chlorinated pool. Replacing it was the brown, cat-fish laden lake. With a paddle boat. With a dock.With a slide. The A-Kids were used to lake swimming at their Grandma and Grandpa's house, but here was a new adventure, new lake and a slide with water.

Just not enough time. Already looking forward to next year.

LOVE These Things

Our (MY) not-so-guilty pleasure of the summer: Tropical Sno. Love these snow-cones-from-a-shed. A dollar buys a plastic cup of heaping goodness. Over the top of the cup heaping. Goodness. N's favorite is a blackcherry grape mix. Sometimes, just an old school simple grape, which is normally the Dad in the Fam's go-to flave. Kyd usually looks forward for the strawberry lemonade. If there's a complaint about these, it's that they are hard to eat and drive at the same time. The car. We're driving the car. Not the snocone.