Our family has always traveled frequently. We began our marriage on the East Coast while my family was from the Midwest and my husband's was from the Southwest. We always flew or drove to see family. As the number of children we had increased, I realized that it would be helpful to live near "a" family, so that we would only have to travel to see the other. We ended up near mine. :-)
Every chance we had to get away, we only ever went one place: to visit my in-laws. They happened to have pretty nice weather there in the Southwest, so I was usually pretty happy to head their direction. However, as the years have drawn on, it did occur to me that we never actually went on a family vacation. Never.
My husband has always loved the ocean, and he always wanted to show the ocean to our children. My Mother-in-law was due for a visit, and she was dubious about the weather she might meet so far North at this time of early Spring (wise woman). She suggested we meet--in Florida!
My husband leaped at the opportunity. I sort of sat by and thought it wouldn't really come to pass. My Mother-in-law seemed to falter. I figured she'd bail and we'd cancel. But she didn't bail. And with plane tickets purchased for our oldest daughter to join us from college on her Spring break, we began our long drive from the Midwest to St. Augustine, Florida.
I've driven to New Mexico by more routes than I can recall, and I've been to Virginia and back easily a dozen times. But I had never been south of Indiana, that far East. Kentucky, Tennessee, and Georgia were all beautiful lands! I loved each one.
After 17 hours, we found ourselves in Florida. We couldn't go straight to the ocean because we had to wait for my daughter's flight to come in at the airport (about an hour away from our rental property).
Instead, we found a National Park. The Spanish moss hanging from the gnarled tree branches made for a magical, mysterious forest to explore. It didn't hurt the excitement to learn that there was an 8 or 9 foot crocodile living in a culvert by the path we hiked.
Then we toured an old civil war fort, and saw a dolphin from the view of the ocean at the top of the fort walls.
Soon it was time to go get my big girl! I always love homecomings with her (even if it wasn't exactly "home"). She was on time and seamlessly walked out to the van as we pulled up along the curbside pickup at the airport. Always thankful for smooth, safe travels!!
We headed straight to our house on the ocean. Everyone was ecstatic at the idea of starting the vacation in earnest, and getting out of the VAN!
Honestly, it was super windy, a little drizzly, grey and chilly the first day. We braved the weather and went out to see the ocean anyway. I'm thinking that to describe the ocean is a little foolish. It is beautiful, breathtaking, awesome. I'm pretty sure it would be hard to remain an atheist in the presence of something so amazing and immense. I simply found myself contemplating the grandeur and glory of our God, the Creator of this universe. My heart sang and my spirit soared.
**all of the above was a draft from 2021, at which point I stopped Blogging. I'm unable to retrieve photos from this vacation, so I'm posting as-is, and moving on!
