Vacation! (part 4)

Day 9 ends: We went out looking for gators and manatees today. Fun times! We saw a couple of gators, but I was never in a position to see the full gator before it jumped into the water. Sad. I did get to see eyes and noses though and they looked pretty fun even like that. The not so fun part was that I got a pretty bad burn. I've decided that while we weren't out long, sitting out the window and on top of the car resulted in direct sun and reflection...bad combination! Here are some pictures:

Gator hunting.

Peek-a-boo gator!

Crouching behind the plants trying to hide from the gator. We were hoping he would come back up from the water. We weren't sneaky enough though I guess.

Gator again from our hiding spot. Marc did see this one before it jumped into the water, but before we all made it out he was pretty far out in the water. Marc said he was about 8 1/2 feet long.

The view of Kennedy Space Center from where we were looking for gators.

After our little nature adventure, we stopped at the beach for lunch. This was an impromptu trip and was more of a tease than an enjoyment. We were at the beach in ridiculous heat with no bathing suits. Eee! Luckily, we had some rain umbrellas in the car that Marc was able to craftily attach to some beach chairs and I was able to stay out of the sun. By this point, it was already pretty obvious I was burnt. Once back home, I tried to keep long sleeves on so everyone wouldn't fuss about my burn. :) Lots of Aloe for me! And so far, no peeling!

At Playalinda Beach.

The vulture on the ground waiting for us to die. This is how hot it was!

And as promised, pictures of Mac's new hair cut:



Day 10: This day was definitely one of my favorite days! Marc and I celebrated our one year anniversary of dating on June 6th, just a few days before leaving. Because Marc was studying for finals, our celebration was minimal and we planned to have a date night or some kind of fun outing together on vacation. We had originally wanted to go out Kayaking near UW so we decided to try that in Florida. Best idea ever!!

We started our morning at 4:15 AM so we could get ready and make it down to Cocoa Beach for the sunrise. I've never seen an east coast sunrise, so I knew this was a must for our trip. It was beautiful and an awesome way to start our day. We especially liked all of the crabs all over the place. Tons of them were coming out of their little holes in the sand and we were hoping that at some point they would all come out and run down to the water, but no such luck. We tried to get some pictures, but never made it very close before they ran back into their holes. Fast little suckers!

Before the sun came up.

Here it comes!

...and a minute later.

Marc holding the sun. :)

Marc and the sunrise with a bird.

Me and the sunrise.

Together.

Marc doesn't like when I have him look serious. I think it's a good picture though. :)

Our crabby friend.

And some other favorites:

We stayed at the beach for a couple of hours and after we felt like the sun was sufficiently up, we headed out to do a little shopping before the kayak place opened up. I was in serious need of rash guard to protect my burn and Marc was on a hunt for the biggest hat he could find. We also stopped into Barnes and Noble to get a book for his little sister. We were hoping to find Theology of the Body for Teens, but were happy to settle with Every Young Woman's Battle.

Shopping took up just enough time and off to kayaking we went! We found a place that was only $25 for a double for 4 hours. Score! As if kayaking weren't cool enough, we got to get up close with horseshoe crabs, a puffer fish (only Marc saw that), manatees, a dolphins! (listed in order of coolness) The manatees were huge and I was slightly freaked out when they were underneath us. Marc assured me that they wouldn't tip us over, but um, they are huge and all it would take was one of them to accidentally bump into us. Towards the end of our play time in the canal we were in, two of the manatees got in a little scuffle and that was enough to scare me to leave. Eee! Angry manatees! The dolphin was way scarier though. I spotted the fin first and of course, in the shark bite capital, the possibility of the fin being a dolphin never crossed my mind, yet I was oddly hopeful that maybe, just maybe it wasn't a shark. It took Marc a bit to spot it after I said something about. He thought I was talking about random debris floating in the water. I'm freaking out and he's talking about debris...not helpful! I did stay pretty calm over all though, while freaking out like no other on the inside and insisting we move to the outside of the canal. I was naturally planning our escape out of the water! Marc acted like it was no big deal to keep me calm, but I had a feeling that at one point he was a little bit worried too. What a good boyfriend! As it turns out, I think dolphins are still a little scary when you aren't at Seaworld. I just started praying a Rosary and that eventually did the trick to bring the fear back down under control. Thanks Mary! Whew, I can feel the stress right now as I write about it. Anyways, Marc finally saw water shoot up from the blow hole and all was well. It took awhile to convince me. I guess I was a bit of a doubting Thomas and wanted to see the blow for myself. Again, I wasn't 100% sure he wasn't just trying to keep me from freaking out. Gradually I picked up enough courage to get near the dolphin, follow it around, and try to catch it's attention. It actually swam right under us twice!! It was close enough at one point that I could have touched it. I missed my chance though and we never got close enough again. Sometimes I'm not so sure where this courage comes from. I actually was trying to get close again to touch the dolphin. I realize it isn't much, but I'm a pretty big scaredy cat! The coolest part was watching the dolphin chase after fish. It was going so fast and tons of fish were jumping out of the water trying to get away. Awesome! When we left the canal we saw a second dolphin and then they swam off together. SO COOL!!

Kayaking!

Manatee!

Big Manatee.

Dolphin fin!

Dolphin head! And this was not zoomed. It was coming right at us!!

All done!

Marc all done!

We finished off the day with naps, dinner with the family, and cranium with the girls and their friend. I love cranium and people who play board games!! My vacation was made much more enjoyable with all of the board games and cards I got to play. :)

I also want to share that we were so exhausted by the end of the night that I had one of the funniest conversations with Marc we have ever had! He was totally out of it, half asleep, and I kept asking questions to keep him talking. I finally whipped out the camera and got him on video, but I'll be nice for once and won't put it up. :) Finally after 4 minutes, he realized I was recording and he started acting like Chad Vader (see David after dentist first). Haha!

Day 11: We went back to Playalinda beach today. This time we had bathing suits and boogie boards. Way more fun!!

Marc on the board.

Turlte nest! Man it would be so cool to watch the little turtles hatch and run for the water!!

Brianna, Marc, Marc's Mom, Faith

Marc & Me

More pinchy crabbies!! (That's what some of my nanny kiddos call them. I miss them!)

Here some pictures of Marc's grandparents:

Grandma reading to Poppy. So cute!

Grandma, Me, Marc, Poppy

We stayed up late for our last night in a further attempt to relive my childhood with a midnight swim. :) While in the pool, there was a sudden and huge rustling noise in the bushes outside of the screen. It was a little scary at first because we had no idea what was making the noise. It turned out to be two armadillos!

Day 12: We didn't do too much on our last day. Marc's uncle Steve stopped in to visit us, we watched some more Band of Brothers, played scrabble, and packed up. It was a nice day!

Marc & his Uncle Steve

About to leave.

The plane ride home was fantastic! We played cards most of the flight and came to the conclusion that playing cards and games together is just another one of the reasons we are best friends. :) We also had a sweet view of Mount Rainier!

I love home!