I have such fond childhood memories of vacationing with family along the Gulf Coast of Florida – mostly in Destin and Mexico Beach. And while it may seem strange to plan a Florida beach vacation when we live 25 minutes from the ocean, earlier this year I found myself longing for that powder white sand and clear water of the Gulf. So two weeks ago, we rented a beach house in a small town called Port St. Joe. Lee, Camille, Boo and I stayed there for four nights, and it really was a great vacation.
Except, don’t call it a vacation around Camille. She liked to call it her Boo-cation, since her Boo was there too!
I was so happy that on the way to Florida we drove through Moultrie where Lee’s Grandmother lived. The blueberry trees around her home were heavy with ripe berries, and we stopped to pick some fruit for our trip. We all traipsed around the farm with our silver pails, and I’m pretty sure Camille put as many berries in her mouth as she did in her bucket. But didn’t we all?
With our bellies full of blueberries and a huge bag of them for later, we made the rest of the trip south to Port St. Joe. The house we rented was nice, with ocean views off the front porch and a community pool practically in the backyard.
Our routine was pool time in the morning and beach time in the afternoon. We chose this area of Florida because it’s not as developed as some of the larger towns like Panama City and even Destin, and we were not disappointed. This was our view from the beach tent. We felt like we had the place to ourselves.
We played in the waves and in the sand, and Lee got a chance to play with his father’s day present – this kite:
It’s a lemur with a 30-foot tail. When Camille and I picked it out I knew it was perfect, because Lee and I had sometimes referred to Camille as “our little lemur” when she was in utero. She didn’t get the nickname for any particular reason, we just liked the way it sounded.
But this little lemur kite caused us a bit of trouble. It’s attached to a spool by 500 feet of kite string. That’s a lot of string, people. At one point, we had it flying at a respectable height, and I buried the spool under a load of towels in our beach cart so no one would have to hold it. All was well until a half hour later when I looked up and realized the kite was but a speck in the sky. Nearly all 500 feet of string had unraveled! I was actually a little worried that if it fell as we reeled it in, it would be across the roadway and could cause an accident. But thankfully, the only injury was to our forearms – have you ever tried reeling in 500 feet of kite string? Ouch. It was kind of funny though.
It was a fun vacation, and I enjoyed reliving some of my childhood memories through Camille. The only thing missing was a pile of cousins to join in the fun. I’m hoping in future years we can make it an extended family affair, so we can all share memories of powder white sand, clear water, and the laughter of our loved ones.
