Saturday Beach Day!

We had a big day planned on Saturday--a trip to Fort DeSoto and a Gulf coast beach. It was highly anticipated (at least by me) all week. We planned on meeting up with Marta, Frank and Elizabeth for some outdoor social distancing fun. I was also excited to get the kids away from their electronics. It seems like they are rarely outside these days. I don't know how to get them to go and play. Letting them do electronics keeps them happy and quiet and allows Thomas and I to work, which we need to do. But, we know it is not good for them and that we are taking the easy way out. Essentially, their devices have become our babysitters. If given the choice, Luke will almost always choose to do something with us. Kara is 50/50 (although she is 100% if we will go in the pool with her or play a game), Anna is maybe 25%, and Jack is probably around 10%. As I have previously written, sometimes we force them. Especially in the evenings. But, that is not really fun for anyone. Who wants to play a game with someone who is grouchy? It is perplexing to me and I am worried about summer break if camps aren't open and we are still home all day. By the way, summer break starts here next Wednesday. We need a plan! I also feel like things would be different in Maryland. The weather was more conducive to being outside (at least at this time of year) and we had that huge playset they spend hours enjoying. Cue more guilt about moving <sigh>.

So, I was excited about a day in the outdoors. We left right at 8am and headed to the west coast of Florida.

This little guy was our first roadblock. He walked directly in front of the car for a minute or two :)

Fort DeSoto is a series of small islands, accessible by bridges. The area was once surveyed by Robert E. Lee. The Fort was active from 1898-1910. At that time, it was only accessible by boat. The fort was cool to see. No shots were ever fired in battle, but it was important to the development of modern weaponry. We saw the big cannons, which were in a 3-walled enclosure. The result was a huge echo. The first person to fire them had his eardrums literally blown out and was almost killed by the sound. The wall for the fort is hidden in the seabanks and is 20 feet thick! To make it, they had to import fresh water via boat in extremely heavy barrels. Today there are lots of nice shade trees, but while the fort was in use, there were none. I can't imagine how hot the soldiers must have been in their wool uniforms, dealing with thousands of barrels of water and building the thick concrete walls. 

So, we explored the fort and then set up on the beach. We found a somewhat nice spot. It required a tradeoff. It was in a little-traveled spot. But, there were fisherman set up on either side of us, so we had to be careful of their lines. The beach area was small, but we had a lot of room in the water to play by ourselves. And, the water was amazing! There was a little line of rocks/shells, but beyond it was a nice, sandy bottom with no seaweed. We could stay waist deep for around 30 yards. We had a great time being in the water. 

It was a beautiful day.

Kara found a living sand dollar. She was very careful with it.

Elizabeth's dog, Peach, came along too!

We brought a picnic lunch and enjoyed being outside and each other's company. Luke was a huge fan of Peach. Anna and Thomas brought books and alternated between time in the water and time on the beach. Jack played in the sand for a while, building castles. The rest of us just stayed in the water.

Frank and Anna

Behind Luke is a turtle nesting area.

We stayed for about 4 hours. I could have stayed all day, but we wanted to go before people got cranky or burnt. Mainly because it was a 2-hour drive home. And, we didn't quite make it, because everyone got burnt to some degree. Fortunately, all of the kids had rash guards and we, of course, used sunscreen. But, the sun still found a way. I would like to go back and explore the park more. In addition to the beach and fort, there are trails, playgrounds, and bike and kayak rentals.

When we got home, we watched Night at the Museum and had quesadillas for dinner, a new favorite quick meal. Sunday, we watched Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure (just had to skip one short scene) with the older kids. I took Luke to a Beya's house to play on her inflatable water slide. He loved it! Bevin is also a good host. She had popsicles and ice cream for the kids and brought me out a bottled water. They had been swimming at our house earlier in the week and it didn't even occur to me to offer food (I think I offered Bevin water, at least I hope I did, but maybe not). I don't know why I don't think of things like that. I am not a good hostess. I want to be, but it does not come naturally to me.

And, since we are going in reverse order. One night last week, I saw that Krispy Kreme had turned their glaze into a lemon glaze. We went and grabbed a dozen and they were amazing. So, so, so good! Fortunately, the lemon glaze takeover only lasted for 4 days, or I would be in trouble. 

For final news, I finished a puzzle I have been working on for weeks. It was only a 500 piece puzzle, but was really challenging for me. All of the pieces were the same, with two knobs and two holes and they were all approximately the same size. Every single piece, well, except the border. It made it less fun. But, I still felt proud of myself for sticking with it and getting it done.

I can't get the picture to rotate, but you get the idea. It's Mount Vernon.

The shape of every single interior piece.