Nature

We had lots of opportunity to see our usual favorite spots (biking the Bailey Tract, biking/driving the Ding Darling Road, and kayaking Tarpon Bay) and also walked a few new trails. (We have to call them "walks" now because "hike" has taken on the status of a bad word in our house after a full year of quarantine forced hikes (AKA death marches). We saw a lot of great wildlife on most trips, including bald eagles, snakes, turtles, softshell tortoises, alligators, all manner of herons and egrets and the like). We also spotted a cool beehive, a green heron sitting on her nest, several yellow crowned night herons nesting, and the most up-close alligators from a safe vantage point. 

There were lots of points when I thought of my dad and wondered if he was proud of us for all of our great wildlife sightings, or shaking his head at all the great wildlife we missed or scared away. We think of him all the time, especially doing things like this that he loved to do with us.

 

Full moon on the beach

The photos don't really show the beach how it looked that night when we went out a little after dusk. It was much darker than the photos show, so we had flashlights. There were a ton of people on the beach enjoying the evening and the full moon over the Gulf.

 

Sanibel Beach Day

One afternoon we did a beach day with the kids. We always have a great time but for some dumb reason they never seem to want to choose going to the beach as the activity for the day. So we "make" them go one day, and we all have a great time.

The water was really warm and had some nice gentle waves so the kids and I spent a lot of time in the water. Theo's finally grown out of his eczema so he can enjoy the salt water, which is wonderful. They built sand castles and other structures and played a lot of frisbee with Jeff, too. 

 

Dynamite dance

 Theo has become obsessed with the BTS song "Dynamite" in the last few months. He has memorized the words and the dance moves from the video. Recently Beckett has agreed to perform with him, and the two of them have a routine they ask to do whenever they meet someone!

Tennis

 

Last days in Sanibel

 

Washington DC monument and memorial tour

The traffic around DC was so bad on our last day, leaving Chapel Hill, that we almost decided to skip the Washington tour we had planned. But at the last minute, because the traffic on the beltway was almost bad enough that it wouldn't matter if we took a two hour detour, we'd still be getting right back into the traffic jam, we decided to drive in. It was a perfect little introduction to DC. We saw the White House, the Lincoln Memorial, the Korean War Memorial, the Washington Monument, the reflecting pool, and the World War II Memorial, along with many other large and imposing government buildings. It was super busy but everyone was wearing masks outdoors and so we felt pretty safe. The kids enjoyed seeing the buildings they'd read about and seen in photos, as well as the ice cream/snow cones.

 

Quick stop in Savannah GA

On day 2 of our journey back north we stopped for a morning run-around in Savannah Georgia. It was unseasonably cold (probably 50 degrees) but the kids were happy to run around in Forsyth Park, very close to where we stayed for Jeff's cousin Emily's wedding several years ago. Theo and Beckett didn't come with us, but 2 year old Reed did, so it was fun to be back in the same spot and for him to be returning somewhere his brothers had never been. 

Stop in Chapel Hill

On the way back from our Sanibel trip we stopped in Chapel Hill for the night and were lucky enough to spend the evening at TJ and Georgia's new home and have dinner with Teddy and Tom.