Journaling reads: Summer is my favorite season. The best place to experience summer early is on Spring Break in Florida! My Grandma & Grandpa Authier moved full-time to Florida when I was really young. We didnÂ’t go often, but if we did travel during Spring Break from cold, snowy Michigan, it was to the warm, sunny Gulf-side community of Venice, Florida. My Grandparents lived in a doublewide mobile home in a city-owned park down there. My favorite memories are of riding GrandmaÂ’s & GrandpaÂ’s three-wheeled bikes all around the park, playing shuffleboard, learning the latest card and dice games, going on a 4 mile walk each evening and trying to keep up with Grandpa, and going to the beach.
“The beach” that we went to most often was Caspersen Beach and it was the closest to my Grandparents’ house. It wasn’t very crowded and had nice sand. My brother and I spent many hours digging in that sand at the shore and running away from waves. The time we’ll never forget is the evening that a seagull pooped on my Mom’s head!
When my Grandparents passed away, my parents purchased their mobile home as their 2nd home. I was married at the time and now Spring Break trips involved air travel from Wisconsin, but we were still enjoying the same area of Florida. After Becca was born we moved to Georgia and had Rachel. Now we were close enough to drive to Florida, just barely. We had a 12-hour drive and it was on one of those drives that we discovered that Becca gets carsick! Now that weÂ’re back in Wisconsin, weÂ’ve vowed never to drive there, but to go by airplane if we can afford it!
I’m so glad to be creating new memories of Florida fun with my daughters and husband! These pictures show our visit when Rachel was just one year old and Becca was 3. We are enjoying the sun, the wind, and the sand. This beach is renowned for it’s fossilized sharks’ teeth that wash up with the tide. In the photo with the chairs, my Mom, Rachel and Uncle George are searching through piles of shells to find sharks’ teeth. My Dad is scooping with a “Florida snow shovel” in the surf to bring up loads of shells to look through. We pick the sharks’ teeth out and collect them in a plastic bag to take home. I love the thrill of the hunt to see if you just might turn up a really large perfect specimen!
The best thing about an early taste of Summer, during the Spring, in Florida is that at the end of almost every day, God treats you to this as your goodnight kissÂ… [photo of sunset]
Date: Monday, May 1, 2006 GMT Views: 449
Favorited:3