A hot weekend away

As the thermometer read this last Friday (the bottom number is the outside temp at 6:02pm!), we were preparing to getaway to here.
I'd gotten passes from the lirary to go to the Coastal Botanical gardens, which was very pleasant. Oddly my kids do enjoy places like this, and this particular garden has lots of rocks to climb on and water features (sprays, fountains, etc) in which to cool one's fingers (or more!) on a hot day. The hydrandea's were amazing, as were many other varieties of flowers. They have apparently received more rain than we have. My grass and gardens are starving for rain.

Boothbay Harbor is a quaint sea-village with cute shops, boats to take on whale-watching trips, and just a picturesque piece of Maine. The cheapo motel I booked last minute on Friday managed to lose our reservation, and put us up at their cost down the street at a slightly better place. Kids got to swim in the pool, but most of all it was great because it was FREE!

Yesterday, rather than hitting those places that are really just for kids, we decided to do a day trip to Monhegan Island. It's a 90min boat ride on what was a just fantastic day. Monhegan is a year round small community, but has no paved roads and is predominantly occupied by real granola-ish artsy-fartsy types. The ocean-side of the island has treacherously steep cliffs of rock. There are many hiking trails around this 1.5sq mile island. The kids liked a dip in the water at a small beach, and my middle kid thought he'd hit the jackpot for all seaglass finds (there have obviously been many lobster & clam bakes there with a plentiful supply of beer!).

Monhegan is like a step back in time. I think there are a couple trucks on the island. Nowhere takes credit cards, and there is no police or medical services so don't get hurt or sick. It was a lovely and calm day, mostly away from the hustle and bustle of an otherwise touristy area.

Now, back to work!

Back to the Real World

After 10 days in paradise, I am sadly, back to my real life. I cannot believe it has been 5 years since we have been here.
There is just no place on earth like the Gulf coast of Florida. Fortunately for us, this is far enough south so that the predictions are only a 10% chance that the oil will reach these beaches. The currents in the gulf keep the oil away from these shores. It is Anna Maria Island, and it is my paradise.

We started out with 3 days here. Disney. It is a monstrosity of a resort, and with less than a week to travel, we changed our lodging reservations so we could stay at the resort. Great move. Our place was awesome. We had several pools, transportation to the parks and dining, etc. And a coach pick up from the airport. Cannot thank the source that tipped me off to staying at the resort rather than any other hotel nearby. Well worth the extra cost. My kids loved Disney, all the fun rides, etc. I am most surprised how all of them glommed onto the characters whenever we saw them too. My daughter stood in line 45 minutes (longest line of all events) to see 3 princesses. It was so totally worth it to see her face. A-M-A-Z-I-N-G! We did a day at the Animal Kingdom park too, which I really liked.

Then a week at the beach. I highly recommend the Disney part first and the beach second. I love the beach and the sun and surf. We had a house with pool that was 5 houses from the beach. PERFECT. The kids swam in the afternoon and played at the beach in the mornings. The surf was just calm enough all but one day to float with a tube/noodle. The kids and I searched for shells, and those few elusive sand dollars. On our last day, we even saw 2 manatees swimming in the wild (on the ocean side) and got to witness a very friendly pelican from 2-3 feet. He was as curious about us as we were about him.

The Sarasota Jungle Gardens was a nice park for the kids, with many indiginous Floridian animals from gators to fancy birds to these lovely and friendly creatures. We got to feed them from our hands like you would a duck. The boys held a baby croc too.

(and yes, this picture was bribed - I had to find them each a sand dollar before they'd sit for it!)