I'm back!

[soc_puppet]

Back from vacation in Florida! It was a pretty nice trip, all told. I didn't get to do one of the few things I'd hoped to do while there—eat some invasive lionfish—but that's because it turns out that all the restaurants serving lionfish are on the other coast for some reason? Hey, Florida restaurants! Lionfish are invading the gulf side of the state, too!

Another thing I kinda wanted to do but didn't get to was visit St Augustine's Alligator Farm, which I hear is top notch in terms of reptile care. Alas, it was over two hours away by car, and with two kids under five in tow, that would have been pushing it a bit much.

Things I did do:

Go on a dolphin-viewing boat (dolphins spotted! Also ospreys)

Visit a beach (briefly; younger nibling did not want to go in the water, elder nibling didn't mind getting their feet wet but largely preferred to throw shovels full of sand into the waves)

Visit an aquarium

Visit a big cat rescue (not as bad as I was expecting, TBH)

Take the kids to a giant indoors bouncy castle

Take the kids to an interactive children's museum

Do a Scooby-Do themed escape room with my brother and SIL

Drank probably more soda in one week than I probably had in at least the month prior, if not longer

Eat alligator nuggets and also grouper

I ended up doing most of the driving for the trip, which worked out pretty well for me. No having to squeeze into the back of the van! No getting carsick! Yay!

One thing my mom really wanted to do was meet up with her brother who lives in Florida; we were visiting my dad's sister rather than her side of the family, since her side is having a big reunion this summer, and Mom thought it would be pretty neat if we could pull something together to see his family as well. Unfortunately for her, he bailed; I mind only for her sake, since he's a homophobic Trump voter, but I was prepared to be civil for the time I would've been in his presence. Don't know how things'll go if I go to the reunion, though. I'll probably just try to avoid him.

And that's about that! Overall, I had a pretty good time, am glad I was there to help out with the kids, and am ultimately happy to be back home.

Comments

That sounds exhausting!

[jesse_the_k]

Are alligator nuggets like chicken nuggets, except A mississippiensis inside?

I remember being enthralled by shells and tide pools and sea wrack and copious other stuff on the sea shore--did neither nibling find these intriguing?

Re: That sounds exhausting!

[soc_puppet]

Pretty much, yeah! They were a little smaller, too; more the size of popcorn chicken than chicken nuggets. There was also an alligator burger on the menu, but I'll just have to have that next time 😜

Alas, the beach we went to had only very small shells; no tide pools or wrecks that I was aware of, or I also would've been very difficult to pull away from them. Possibly the most interesting big for me was either burying my brother with Younger Nibling, or "unearthing" tiny clams in the waves and watching them re-bury themselves. There were a lot, and they were very colorful!

[mistressofmuses]

I'm glad you had a good time! It sounds like you did get to do a lot.

[soc_puppet]

Sooooo much! With some bonus kid wrangling. Love the niblings, but they're definitely a handful!

(Also my aunt and uncle have a dog who is very nice, but also Loves! To play! And almost took me out at the knees a few times by bumping into me from behind with her ball to get my attention 😂 "It's not my fault my head is at knee-bumping level! Now please throw this ball (but without taking it from me first)!" - the dog, probably.)