A Much Needed Vacation, Part 2

I left off last time with us having driven down to Ormond Beach last Tuesday (June 22). We stayed at the same place as last year. After checking in we went to supper and then did what everyone should do when they're on vacation -- we went to Wal-Mart.

For me and Vicki this part of the trip was all about relaxing in the sand. We didn't have any agenda to speak of with the exception of meeting up with the Cotters for one day.

Given our complexion we tried to schedule our beach time so that we weren't out through the middle part of the day. Between that and SPF 50 sunscreen we came away with very little sunburn. When we came in for lunch we typically hung out inside for a few hours, even waiting until after supper before hitting the beach again. We also went shopping some in the afternoon. (Nate's came home with a couple of shark's tooth necklaces and an alligator head -- all things he is very proud to own.) We broke with this schedule one day when Jim, Dianna, Alex, and Chris drove over to spend a day at the beach with us. We had a really nice visit with them.

On the beach we played in the sand and surf. Ben and Nate built several sand castles. We also took our kites this year and those logged quite a bit of air time. In the water I think we had the most fun jumping waves, but riding the boogie boards were also fun.

I bought a skimboard this year. If you've never seen one it is about the size of a boogie board but is made of 3/8 inch plywood. This intention is to ride it like a skateboard in very shallow water (say, 1-2 inches deep). This was probably a stupid move for me seeing how I have no skateboarding experience. It is definitely a lot harder than it looks. Vicki and Jenna were sitting in the shallow water as I was trying this. Jenna commented to Vicki, "I sure admire his enthusiasm, but I would never do that." A few minutes later I took a tumble and came up with a good sized strawberry on my left knee.

Later I was using my skimboard as a boogie board (Ben was riding his boogie board next to me) when the board somehow went nose down and dug itself into the sand. I had enough time to think, "This is going to hurt," when the wave slammed my chest into the back edge of the board. I didn't break anything, but it was about two days before I could take a deep breath. So, I came home beat up by my own skimboard.

We tried a couple of new places to eat this time. The first, and in our opinion the best, was the Charlie Horse restaurant (http://www.charliehorserestaurant.com/home_page.htm) which was right down the street from our condo. The other was the Harbor Lights Restaurant down in Port Orange.

Saturday morning we checked out and headed home. This trip was so relaxing it felt like loads of stress have been washed out to sea. Neither Vicki or I were ready to come home. We wound up spending the night in Georgia and getting home Sunday afternoon. This pretty much sums up our vacation. Not exactly a high adventure trip, but it offered a lot of rest that we needed.

Joe