Spring Break 2015 - midpoint

I wish that I could remember everything that has happened on Spring Break 2015 because seriously, these kids in my family (my cousin on my dad's side) have said and done some hilarious things.

Lily: "Carson, you're fixing us breakfast tomorrow and bringing to it to us in our bed."

Carson: "Yeah, good luck with that. I'll fix you poop is what I'll fix you. And if you don't like that then don't tell me to fix you breakfast."

Of course, I remember the poop funny. We were walking back from a day at a State Park beach and we were sunburned and full of sand and happiness and this conversation occurred right behind me, and I laughed the rest of the night. Because Carson's inflection was spot on. And because it was poop.

This week the weather has been everything we love about Florida. My family, Shad, Jaimee and their three children, Lily, Carson, and Wyatt, and Lily's friend Sailor, have been at The Condo. They Googled things to do and my girls and I tagged along as freeloaders guides. Guides who clearly did not know how to put on sunscreen correctly because some burn happened along the way.

Day two Jaimee hauled us all up to the sponge docks in Tarpon Springs, or as Jaimee kept referring to it: Tar-Pon Springs. Shad parked and we got out to walk the strip and learn about sponge diving. Only the docks are full of small shops selling tourist items and sponges and homemade candles and homemade soaps so the very first shop we tried to pass...well, it wasn't happening. In went the girls and the younger boys. Shad and I looked at each other and counted slowly to ten and out came the boys. We left the girls and continued walking toward the marina where we were reoped enticed in to seeing a movie about sponge diving.

In all fairness it probably would have been an interesting movie if someone would take the time to modernize it into this century and if we had seen it from the beginning. We got there in time to learn about the different types of sponges, but before being led out of the "theater" and into a shop where we learned that sponges, not matter the shape, are damn expensive.

From there we went to the docks and watched the boats come in with their sponge hauls. Shad inquired about how the sponges turned colors and we were directed to this pile of sponges that had been sitting out for two days. "We bleach the sponges," we were told. "This pile is heading off now to begin that process." So we sat and watched the Greek men load the spongs on this truck. I was not sure that all of these nets of sponges would make it on the truck, but they did.

Once we met up with the shoppers we took advantage of the Greek food. I was sorry Madison was not with us (she was spending her break studying for her upcoming IB boards) because she and I love Greek food and Darcy, who was me, ordered chicken fingers. Chicken fingers! Shades of her cousin Austin. At least the Indiana kids ordered seafood!

The rest of the visit was more shops and more boats. Luckily for Shad they had this there:

Despite all of the entering of shops we left there with minimal purchases. We traveled to Clearwater Beach and finished off the day lounging in the sun, playing beach volleyball, building giant holes, and burying Darcy.

The girls walked the pier and got henna tattoos. The boys frolicked in the gulf . Shad slept and Jaimie and I talked and talked and talked; about important life decisions, politics, and world poverty. And then we watched the sun set and hiked to our local beach pizza place to wind up the day. 

It wasn't until we got back to our places that we discovered we should work a tad harder at applying the sunscreen. Tomorrow.