A week in St Augustine

We just got back from a week on the beach. I had no internet there, so I'll try and remember the details...

First, we left Memphis after Callum and Isabelle's graduation ceremonies. That means we left at 8 pm at night. Callum was feeling sick by 10 miles from our house, and had thrown up before we had gone 50 miles. By about 51 miles, he was fine. From Memphis, we went to Birmingham, Alabama; Atlanta, Georgia; Jacksonville, Florida and finally St Augustine. The drive was 800.2 miles door-to-door. A long way! The kids actually went to sleep at about 10, and at 2 we pulled into a motel in Forsyth (south of Atlanta, and just over half way). We finished the journey after a few hours sleep. The kids were great, and so was the DVD player.



The beach was amazing! Everyone loved it. And our friends house was great too - about 300 meters from the beach, and very comfortable. And you could drive on the beach! That surprised us, especially the first time we went, when we all almost got run over. At high tide, it actually left very little room for playing in, but we decided it was a convenient way of getting 3 sets of buckets and spades around. The sand was hard (hence you could drive on it), but did make pretty good sand castles. It was a long, long way from Eccles on Sea! [For non-Heaths, that is an in-joke.]

Lexie loved the beach too, of course. We'd go in the morning and leave at about lunch time so she could have her nap, and we could all avoid the midday sun. Well, try to. Callum and I would stay down there for a little while, and play a bit longer. I am now peeling.



St Augustine area was great for a vacation too. This picture of Isabelle was taken just outside of Marineland - a dolphin conservation oceanarium, where we saw a 5 day old dolphin nursing its mother. The observant amongst you will notice that Isabelle is wearing a sling, which was obtained at the very nice Flagler Hospital Emergency Room on Tuesday. The reason for the trip to the ER was due to the fact that she fell out of bed the preceeding night and landed on the tile floor and broke her clavicle (collar bone). The poor darling has been a real trooper, but it certainly put a downer on the vacation. She is in a lot of pain even still, especially if she bumps her right arm. We are going to an orthopedic surgeon tomorrow now that we are back, but Belle is going to have a very quiet summer: no trampolining; no swimming lessons; no bike riding. She is really being very brave.



As you can see, Callum's favorite thing to do was jump through the surf. He also loved the boogie board and even tried a skim board (I tried it too, and almost broke my wrist falling off again). He also loved the Alligator Farm, which had all 23 species of crocodillians on display. But mainly alligators. Lots of American alligators! [Bonus points for whoever can tell me the other species of alligator extant today without going to Google.] No pictures though, as Pennie has now officially seen enough alligators to last her for the rest of her life.

We also rode the Red Train around the city, and walked down George street, but didn't have too much time to explore the City. The fort, the lighthouse and the foutain of Youth will have to wait til next time. We did go to Ripley's Believe it or Not, but that was a wash out. Not for small children. And we met up with Kevin and Theresa and Zoe, who drove in from Gainsville for a couple of days. That was good!

Finally, we had to leave. Again, we broke the trip into two. We left at 4 pm on Sunday, and stopped in Jasper, Alabama, at about midnight having driven 600 miles. This morning, we had only 200 miles to go! Total mileage for the trip was about 1,760. That is a lot of driving. So, to finish off, here is a picture of our driver. Well done, Lexie!



Edited to add link to Eccles on MapQuest for Mum!