Vacation Day 8

It was Beach Mania yesterday.  We started by going down to the sound beach in the morning to explore and build sand castles.  The kids really wanted to go to the shark beach, but we held them off awhile by taking them to the sound beach while Matt and Dad took the bike that lost the chain to be fixed.  The tide was out, so there were hundreds of shells everywhere with hermit crabs in them.  The kids hunted them and threw them back into the water.  The coolest thing I saw was a blue crab that found a dead jellyfish and grabbed it and started eating it.  Next the girls, Laura, Hannah, and Grammy, decided to build sand castles.  Laura wanted to build one that had a pool in the middle with structures around it.  Grammy's and Hannah's was the traditional type that had structures set in a square with the mote around it.  Emma was the destructor.  They had to work hard to keep her at bay.  She gets great enjoyment out of smashing structures.  Imagine that!

When Matt and Dad got back, we ate lunch and then packed up for the shark beach.  We decided to ride bikes there, which is a 35 minute ride.  So we packed the beach bag and the cooler, and they had to be set in the trailer with Emma.  She was none to pleased about that, but it actually worked out, since Emma fell asleep both on the ride to the beach and on the way back from the beach.  At the shark beach, we were pretty much in the waves the entire time.  Laura loved to jump with the waves and ride them towards the beach.  Hannah and Emma loved the waves too, but they are just not strong enough to handle them, which means that someone has to hold them.  But Hannah likes to bounce up and down in the waves.  And Emma clings to us, but she loves it when we can "ride" a wave.  Emma doesn't love it when she gets smacked in the face with a wave.  We took one short break and then back into the waves we went.  After a while a front was blowing colder air, so we decided to start the trek back.  After we got back, we were beat! 

Matt and I got ready to go out for the evening, and Dad took the older two to the store.  Apparently the store was quite the adventure.  Dad said the girls had him walk all the way around it three times trying to make selections for the evening.  It took them a long time!  They have Papa wrapped around their little fingers!  He let them pick something out for fun, and they each picked something totally different, very reflective of their individuality.  Laura picked a snack.  Hannah picked a pair of white socks with sparkles on them.  And they chose a plastic dolphin toy for Emma, which was perfect.  They had frozen pizza and watched Rio. 

Matt and I ate dinner at The Old Oyster Factory, which is a really neat place.  It is built on the site of an actual Oyster Factory, and they still raise about 300 acres of oysters there.  The view is beautiful, and the food is delicious.  We had some Savannah style oysters, which are topped in crab, bacon, and cheese.  They were so awesome!  Then we had some shrimp gumbo.  It was even better than the batch we had at the Crazy Crab.  Then I had crab cakes, and Matt had mahi mahi.  We were stuffed ,and it was so good!  We were exhausted after a full day, and we didn't stay out too late.  We listened to a little music at the Salty Dog and then headed home. 

Only one more day....Man, time has just flown by fast!  It has been an awesome vacation.  We asked the kids what they wanted to do today.  You can guess that they listed just about everything!  They want to take a bike ride, go swimming, go to a restaurant for dinner, go to the beach for sunset, and have ice cream.  We will see how much we can fit in today!  We will be off early in the morning to head north.