Five years ago we made the decision to travel for a month to Belize. Since then we have gone to Nicaragua, and twice to Dominican Republic for a month. This year, our fifth, we stayed state side and found ourselves on the remotest trip yet, in Southern Florida on a little island named North Captiva.
North Captiva Island is only accessible by ferry and no cars are allowed on the island, but everybody has a golf cart. There is mostly nothing to do unless you happen to love things such as kayaking, walking, running, or lying around, which we do. The first day there we looked out of our house to see an Osprey on the neighboring house and we all crowded the windows watching it preen, listening to it's surprisingly beautiful chirp, and then said goodbye as it flew away. Little did we know, the island was covered in Osprey who were all too proud to come fly right by and show us their catch of the day. It was on more than one occasion that we had to slow the golf cart down to let a crane take it's time crossing the little dirt road in front of us and the gopher tortoises always got us to stop and watch as they made their tracks in the sand back to their holes. The water always had a dolphin to spot and even a mama and baby manatee made it's way into the marina for us to check out. It is a small island, with nothing to do, except enjoy all the beauty that surrounds you.
With such trips, life is lived at a bit slower pace. When a vacation is extended beyond a typical vacation time, there is little need to rush to get things done or experience everything there is right away, so the gift of time is enjoyed and filled with casual conversation, and in the case of this annual trek, Clue. I am not sure if there has ever in the history of a trip taken been more games of Clue played than on the one we just went on. Clue, if you did not know, can get competitive and when the action is tense, people make mistakes which cause uproarious fits of laughter which can only happen when the daily stresses of life is if one should go snuggle a baby or read a book.
The boys each had "driving lessons" where they would take the golf cart out and slowly slowly press the pedal until it felt like you were going to be thrown from potholes they'd hit at full speed. They would also do "commando" missions with my dad and their water pistols and learned how to jump off a moving cart, roll through the weeds, run through the woods and jump back on a moving cart. I'm not sure how to write that down in their school curriculum, but I'm sure it can be attributed to some kind of learned skill. Through these slow days it wouldn't be unusual for a person to say they were going running. My dad and Matt both run pretty consistently with my sister, Chris and I heading out a little more sporadically. I was coming back to the house one day when Austin passed me saying he was going for a run. I smiled and he let me know he was just doing a small loop. The roads on North Captiva are small dirt roads and I think around 60 homes where we were, couple that with Austin's mind that is made out of a Garmin Navigation system and I wasn't too worried. I figured he'd be back in about 5 minutes. I went into the house and told the room that Austin had decided to go on a solo run and Matt looked at me and said, "You know, I got lost for the second time today." The small dirt roads were not straight and many had dead ends. Back out the door I went driving the golf cart in search of my 8 year old solo runner. I found him 10 minutes later and mapped the run, a 1.1 mile run for this little blonde boy of mine who just isn't so little anymore. From then on Austin decided to run with a partner and even made it out on a 5.05 mile run with Chris, my dad, and I. My heart soared just a little.
While Austin was developing his stride, Oliver liked to work on his stroke. I'm sure he would have slept in the pool if he could and nobody liked a night swim more than that child. He can backflip underwater until I get dizzy watching, learned to dive...sort of, if only belly flops could be swan dives, and found great fun in making underwater videos with the GoPro. Hours would go by and the rest of us would find ourselves coming back for round two only to discover Oliver still had not finished his first swim.
Matt and Jen decided to rent a speed boat for a day, so we all got to climb aboard (except Chris, poor guy, as he was on a business trip in Kansas). We headed out and found ourselves walking the beaches of Cayo Costa State Park. Our next stop was on Cabbage Key where we dined in the supposedly famous spot of Jimmy Buffet and his cheeseburger. After that we took a very windy and rough ride that was slightly stressful for the parents on board and much less so for the children yelling YEEEEHAWWWW into the wind, over to Captiva for some dessert in the Puddle Room before heading back along the dolphins to North Captiva.
Our house came with a pool and when the air temperature wasn't coming out of the 60's, we found the temperature gauge on the pool and turned it into our own little hot tub, justifying the energy usage as nobody was driving cars. We woke and went swimming no matter the temps as it felt soooo good to be submerged in warm water that you never had to get out of as you waited for the sun to hit.
A chilly day on a couple of wave runners won't be forgotten as four dolphins swam in front of us as we were drenched and spray and kept our teeth from chattering. Introducing little Ada to the wonders of the beach through long walks in the sand, dipping her toes in the ocean, and her first swim in a hot tub pool will be stories she grows up with. Visiting with Grandma over a deck of cards or a glass of wine, gorging ourselves on brownie sundaes, completing endless amounts of puzzles, playing baseball, and watching the Florida sunsets will capture this trip in our memories.
Every year I fret that this will have to be our last one. There are sports! And school! And camps, commitments, work, bills...and the list goes on. Every year I think, "Man, this is great, but this will probably be the last one," all while googling homes in warm places for next March...just in case.
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