Ah...vacation!
Togetherness...
Relaxation....
Anticipation...
The evening I am going to describe had ALL of these things, and I think that that is why it stands out as my favorite evening of the whole family vacation to Sanibel Island.
Never mind that it happened on Captiva Island.
That's a fine point.
It involved eating dinner at a restaurant, which meant we
(as in my mom and I)
didn't have to cook.
What is more, the restaurant was directly on a beach!
I have no interest in eating in any other kind of restaurant anymore.
...just ones on beaches only please....
The first part of our evening involved dressing up a bit from our usual "ratty sports look" (as in "just off the basketball court look" and not to be confused with a "sporty look" which is generally considered a good thing.)
Then we put our name in at a place called The Mucky Duck for the 5:00 seating,
and we waited...
and waited...
...still waiting!!!....
...more waiting....
...waiting on the beach for the five o'clock seating to start...
...and finally!....the rush for the door...
Please excuse the 11 year old making rabbit ears.
He can't help himself.
We like him. We're keeping him no matter what.
So we just sat on him and took another shot.
Just kidding....
This place was so casual you have to provide your own door service.
Never leave home without a young man to open doors for you,
that's what I always say!
"Thank you young man. Now stop chewing on those sunglasses I just bought you!"
We weren't too pumped up about our table in the corner...
until we saw how everybody else in the middle of the room
was jostled and climbed over all evening.
We were pretty well insulated...
and not too far from the view.
Zach is telling her that she has to pay him in shrimp to sit by him.
Just kidding...I don't know what he's telling her,
but I do know he's pushing her buttons.
Zach is an expert button pusher.
(Button pusher = somebody who knows just the way to irritate another without fail---in case you live somewhere where they don't use this expression...like Zaire...anyway)
He rarely fails.
If you need somebody's buttons pushed, call Zach.
Cheesy shots while we ....waited...
More Cheese...
We were happy to wait.
We were happy to wait.
It was fun just to be together.
This was our first night out.
I already mentioned that,...sorry.
We weren't jaded vacationers yet.
Plus...we knew something was coming which always makes certain members of our family HAPPY!
Especially Timmy....
SHRIMP!
Barbeque shrimp, fried shrimp, grilled shrimp, coconut shrimp...
Just call the boy Bubba!
Just call the boy Bubba!
But then there was the Duck A L'Orange guy...
Katie went for the duck too.
We sat gazing by the ocean eating....
DUCK.
It's OK.
It's OK, It's' OK, It's OK.
See my book "Traveling with Teens" which I have not written yet but will write sometime in the future when I get it all figured out.
And if I don't....It's OK!
Timmy, of course, won the hook game after dinner...
that's just kinda how life goes for him...
that's just kinda how life goes for him...
We hung around...waited...by the restaurant for awhile...
entertaining ourselves by taking pictures which show how much taller the kids are than Grandma.
Everybody wants in on that action....
....except Lily... the quintessential beach bum...just throwing cartwheels in the sand...
Yeah....
She's workin' on them...
....still!...
Tired of WAITING, the young gentlemen amongst us moved on to further entertaining themselves by...
....pelting one another with seashells as hard as they could....
Does anyone know of a good book on traveling with teens out there?
Look at their faces!
I (MOM) had completely lost the "It's OK" approach by this point in the evening.
AND FINALLY...the time we'd been anticipating had arrived!
It had all been building up to THIS!
TA DA!!!!!
Ahem...Ahem...
Andrew, COULD YOU PLEASE MOVE?
Thank you.
Ahhhhhh.
Ahhhhhh.
Enchanting.
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