On Location

Looking through my list of blog posts, there were several in there that I had drafted but never published. Back in the first week of November, we took a trip to the Florida panhandle, escaping the onset of winter for one golden week. We had the beach and the gulf to ourselves.

Total freedom
Bonfire on the beach - one of my husband's longtime dreams
My sons re-enacted the Normandy invasion. It was fine until I fell into a shell hole.

Theresa
Natalie's favorite pastime: covering herself with wet drizzled sand



The twins received more baths in one week than in their entire lifetimes combined.
Cable tv - the highlight of any respectable beach house.


Seriously, are there really people who would take their chances in there?!?!?


Noelle


Clare & Noelle


Conor & Natalie



One of the many glorious sunsets

Horseback riding on the beach (no, that is not me)

Kayaking in the gulf

We discovered it was less expensive to buy fishing gear than to rent it.


At first we didn't have any luck. Conor was actually the first one to catch anything.


Brian finally succeeded in snagging a whiting, although he didn't get any keepers. Oh well.
Life is good, anyway.








Peace.


And finally... I know that the ocean is full of living things. It's just that at the NJ shore, where we usually go, the extent of wildlife is the hordes of noisy gulls and the occasional dead horseshoe crab. Wading in the gulf with real. actual. live. fish. and real. actual. live. crabs was an indescribable wonder for me. Once I learned what to look for, the crabs were everywhere. Our mission (well, mine, anyway) became to gather as many of the crabs as possible.
Witness the fruits: