Homeward Bound
Greetings to all.
Today, the weather did not favor outdoor activities; it rained heavily throughout the day.
We spent the morning after breakfast packing, then checkout out of the hotel. We had a couple of hours to kill before dropping Rebecca at the airport. She had a flight to go to Andrews AFB, while Xavier and I had a direct flight to Denver several hours later.
We had hoped to hike/walk one of the local preserve areas, but it was too wet and rainy for that. Instead, we found the airport, then found a place to eat lunch. After lunch, we dropped Rebecca off, then waited for her to call us. She was going to check out the USO in the airport and report if it was kid-friendly.
We got the call, and it was kid-friendly. It even had Lego to build. However, sitting there for for six hours with an under-exercised four year-old did not sound appealing. I Googled for indoor play areas and found one thirty minutes away.
Xavier played and got much of his running around done over the next hour and a half. Then we headed back to the airport. After returning the rental car, we found the check-in, thinking to get our checked luggage taken care of. The check in stations were closed, opening only two hours before the flight, leaving us an with hour and a half to kill.
We spent that in the USO. Xavier loved it there, especially upon finding the Lego. He build an airport and then added a USO room to his airport. He explored the many other toys as well, then we left to check in.
Pensacola Airport is a small airport. We checkout our bags, got through security and found our gate in less than twenty minutes. Once past security, we found a vendor and bought dinner. We ate while watching planes get serviced, land and take off.
Xavier held up well, even sleeping a while on the three and a half hour maiden voyage of Frontier Airline's service between Pensacola and Denver.
We walked in the door of our house just after 11:30 PM and Xavier was in bed just after midnight. I planned that he would get up and go to school in a few hours, leaving me the day to rest up and do nothing.
He woke up at 8:30. No time to make it to school. I did not get the nap I planned on and greatly needed, but we did find things to do. We ended the day returning to the airport to pick Rebecca up; she was able to get all she needed done at Andrews AFB in just a few hours.
At last, after eight weeks, the family is together again and home!
Naval Museum
Greetings to all.
This morning, we toured a naval air museum. Both Rebecca and I wanted to see it, and we hoped it offer things that would keep Xavier's attention for a couple of hours.
Instead of boredom and wanting to go to the beach or pool, Xavier surprised us. When he saw a one-quarter sized model of an aircraft carrier, his face lit up. I lifted him up to see the detail and he asked question after question.
Rounding the corner from the lobby into the museum itself took Xavier to a whole new level of engaged excitement. The aircraft in the room had Xavier tripping the clouds.
Then he discovered the aircraft engine displays near most of the planes. These had parts of the housing cut away so the internal workings could be seen. Xavier's love for mechanical devices kicked in and more adrenaline hit his system. Could it get more exciting than this!
Yes, yes it could. Deeper into the museum were the cockpits of retired planes and helicopters. You could climb into these and drive the sticks and operate the controls. There were even whole aircraft there you could climb into. And then the irresistible final item: a miniature, kid-sized aircraft carrier bridge.
That mixed with other kids to play with Xavier gave Dad nearly an hour to walk around and look at the museum at his pace.
After pulling him away from these "interactive exhibits," Xavier discovered the gift shop. He had to have something to take home. His face was aglow as he looked over what the shop offered. Imagine what he did when he discovered a wall of Lego-compatible kits with aircraft and aircraft carriers. Fortunately for us, I could use the very real reason that our suitcases were not big enough for the items he initially lobbied for.
As we left, we thought Xavier would be happy to go straight out the exit, but no. He wanted to look at all the models of the aircraft carriers on the way out. These models were from the very first aircraft carrier to the latest active vessel, and Xavier needed to see them all.
We finished the day at the beach, where Xavier and I built a large sand castle. We hoped the in-coming tide would fill the moat. It did not.
After the beach, we hit the pool and hot tub. The weather at the end of the day grew chilled, blowing in tomorrow's expected rain, so we all favored the hot tub over the pool. After a few trips around the Lazy River, we cleaned up and went out to a local restaurant. We ended the evening with an unexpected fireworks display launched over the bay.
Day on the Beach
Greetings to all.
The plan today was the beach. And what a lovely beach our hotel sat on! Well kept and clean, lots of white, soft sand and moderate breakers washing the shoreline. We could rent chairs, umbrellas and tents if we wanted. We did not rent any of these.
When we pulled open the curtain to let the morning sunlight into the room, we saw just off shore a school of dolphin feeding. If I had a telephoto lens for my travel camera, there would be pictures!
After breakfast, we dressed for the beach, grabbed some towels from the pool deck and headed South. Crossing the long foot bridge from the hotel pool area, we at last stepped down onto the white, soft sands.
We found a place to set up and call our own. Xavier, who remembered his first beach experience in Coco Beach, Florida, wanted to build sand castles. We had brought the plastic water glasses from our room to use as molds.
Soon, Xavier grew board with the sand. He wanted to splash in the waves. Alas, a new angst for Xavier's parents, and one which brought us to move a few hundred feet down the beach.
The shelf dropped off steeply just a few feet into the water. Though only dropping a foot or so, it was still too deep for Xavier, and too uncomfortable for his parents. We found a place where the shelf drop-off was much further out to sea.
After a couple of hours, Xavier wanted to go back to the hotel pool area and get into the hot tub. On the way back, he found something else to play with: the hose and shower used to rinse off the beach sand before entering the pool area. Once torn away from that, he made his way to the hot tub while Rebecca and I secured a few lounge chairs under an umbrella near the pool.
While Xavier played in the hot tub and shallow area of the pool, Rebecca and I hoped to relax in the shade of the umbrella, reconnect and have some adult conversation. It had been, after all, seven weeks since the two of us could relax and talk with each other.
Xavier made this difficult. He kept coming over and asking questions, or wanting someone to take him on a Lazy River ride. This did lead to Rebecca and I to seriously explore the idea of giving Xavier a sibling.
For dinner, we engaged a sort of tuk-tuk service to a restaurant down the beach. After dinner, we walked the beach back to our hotel. The sun had just set, but still we had plenty of dusky light.
Xavier kept stopping to dig in the sand. He had found a large bird feather and used the quill end to excavate. As we walked near the surf, we saw dark shapes moving in the water. These turned out to be a school of manta rays feeding on the small fish along the shoreline. They came right up to the edge of the surf foam, and they swam in the small breakers.
We took pictures, but there was not enough light for the pictures to show anything very well. Xavier saw the rays, but they did not impress him. Instead, while Mom and Dad watched the rays, he took opportunity to dig in the sand with his feather. Mom and Dad no longer telling him repeatedly to "follow and keep up," he could fully indulge in the his sand excavation project.