April 5th Vacation

I'm not done with my vacation memories yet...I loved vacation! My children loved vacation! My beloved loved vacation! We swam, and swam, and swam! Bean learned to say wa-wa (water) because she loved swimming! We went to the beach, and fished from the docks and went to the pool, everyday, all day. We got sunburned, ate dinner late, drank sun tea with lemon, and ate key lime pie! There are no cars on the island so the children would run, like wild natives, all over the island; whooping, and laughing, screaming with joy and calling out to newly made friends until well after the sun set. They would roll out of bed and go out to the docks where they would fish, by themselves, no need for an adult! They would bait, cast, reel in, and even dehook their precious catches themselves. Some they cleverly used for bait, cutting them up themselves(!) others they took pity upon and released for another chance at life. A few unfortunate souls found themselves trapped in a menagerie of pitchers and tupperware on our front porch for future study...all were released by weeks end! There were jellyfish, and ghost crabs, and baby fish, and hermit crabs, and the most popular conch...a few unsuspecting ones found themselves to be removed from their homes. Did you know they have tails? And you can pull them out by their tails? All was done in the name of science. The highlight may have been kayaking with the dolphins, oh, the dolphins! To see these beautiful creatures a foot away from you is breathtaking! They would chase us, and play with us, want us to follow and want to follow us. Come so close, so quietly, so magestically, and then disappear again. Only to come play again! There were manatees, cute noses full of furry whiskers, lazily playing in the bay. Such a blessed life we lead, such a blessed life to have had these experiences! Enough science classes for a year, at least! I say thank you, thank you to the island for sharing your secrets with us, thank you to the creatures who shared and showed them selves to my children-thank you for this very blessed life!