We left Thursday afternoon and Charlie slept in the car all the way until we got to the interstate. It was going to be a long, long trip! A few more hours of whining and screaming and we were finally there. Our first stop was to eat dinner at Lambert's, which is one of our favorites. After dinner, we went to our room to check in and get settled.
We stayed in a very nice condo, which we found on a for rental by owner site. It was 3 bedrooms, 2 baths, including granite countertops, stainless appliances, nice furnishings, and the biggest balcony we've ever had! The condo is right on the beach and the perfect location - one door down from Sea 'n Suds - one of our favorite spots as well! It's a 20 floor building and only 4 years old, with a great kiddie pool area with a mushroom and other fun spray/splash things for kids. All that to say that we found one for sale in the complex for a VERY discounted price - anyone want to go in with us??? ;)
Our view of Sea 'n Suds:
The conditions were VERY windy and just downright chilly some days. According to the weather report, everything was supposed to return to normal the day after we left. Perfect! The waves were BIG (hard to tell from our 9th floor balcony)...
Our first morning there, we went to the Hangout for breakfast and to watch the Rick and Bubba show broadcast live. When I told Carter where we were going, he started singing their theme song. Do you think we listen to their show often? :) In fact, when he was younger he called the radio "Rick and Bubba" even when we listened to music. Ha! We didn't get many good pictures in there because it was relatively dark inside but bright outside, so everything turned out dark. Carter got to pet a few animals from a local zoo that was on the show - we saw a baby white tiger, kangaroo, and a few other things. Carter also got to talk with Rick during one of the breaks, but we ended up not standing in line to get our picture made with them. 
The boys enjoyed eating breakfast on the couch, watching cartoons.
I tried to get pictures of most of the outfits I made them (although we missed a few). The boys thought they would be clowns in some of these!
Getting ready to go swimming for the first time of the trip/year - so excited!
The boys loved riding on the cart to our room.
Sometime after the Rick and Bubba show, we made our annual trip to the Naval Air Museum. We've been there a million times, so we didn't stay too long. Carter and Charlie enjoyed climbing in lots of the cockpits and all over the play aircraft carrier that Carter calls a pirate ship. 
Charlie wasn't sure about this control stick that Carter kept making move, since they were both connected!
We saw the commissioning of some officers or something - I can't remember what the ceremony was? It was pretty neat, and when they played the National Anthem I made Carter be quiet because it was "an important song." A few days later, Carter asked me about being quiet for that important song.
One of the new things we did this time was to eat in the cafe located at the museum. We've never eaten there because it just doesn't look all that nice or new, and when we got in there, we found out why. It's an exact replica of the officer's club at the base in the Philippines. In fact, all the memorabilia (plaques, tables, chairs, etc) was shipped over to recreate the entire thing, after that base was closed. So now I think it's pretty cool, not just some old cafe (when we walked in, I had even said to Alan, "is this supposed to look like some old officer's club or something?" - ha!).
We did get to enjoy the beach a couple of days - once, it was actually warm and sunny! Carter made a friend and shared his beach toys with her.
We mainly stayed in the indoor pool (we did enjoy the kiddie pool once). Charlie learned to jump in, as long as he's holding someone's hands, and he loved it.
Carter is getting SOO good at swimming and he swam all the way across the pool without his vest a few times. He also took his vest off and swam down to the bottom to get rings - he played this game a LOT! I'm very proud of our little fish, and a bit surprised that he remembered all that after almost a year of not swimming (and a year since swim lessons).
Our last night there, we went to The Track. Carter rode go-carts with Daddy, drove one all by himself, drove a bumper boat (and soaked the other child) and then he and Charlie did all kinds of fun kiddie rides.
We saw the commissioning of some officers or something - I can't remember what the ceremony was? It was pretty neat, and when they played the National Anthem I made Carter be quiet because it was "an important song." A few days later, Carter asked me about being quiet for that important song.
One of the new things we did this time was to eat in the cafe located at the museum. We've never eaten there because it just doesn't look all that nice or new, and when we got in there, we found out why. It's an exact replica of the officer's club at the base in the Philippines. In fact, all the memorabilia (plaques, tables, chairs, etc) was shipped over to recreate the entire thing, after that base was closed. So now I think it's pretty cool, not just some old cafe (when we walked in, I had even said to Alan, "is this supposed to look like some old officer's club or something?" - ha!). We did get to enjoy the beach a couple of days - once, it was actually warm and sunny! Carter made a friend and shared his beach toys with her.
We mainly stayed in the indoor pool (we did enjoy the kiddie pool once). Charlie learned to jump in, as long as he's holding someone's hands, and he loved it.
Carter is getting SOO good at swimming and he swam all the way across the pool without his vest a few times. He also took his vest off and swam down to the bottom to get rings - he played this game a LOT! I'm very proud of our little fish, and a bit surprised that he remembered all that after almost a year of not swimming (and a year since swim lessons).
Our last night there, we went to The Track. Carter rode go-carts with Daddy, drove one all by himself, drove a bumper boat (and soaked the other child) and then he and Charlie did all kinds of fun kiddie rides.
This was funny - on the kids' track (the one Carter drove on):
So, that's our trip in a nutshell. I wish we had better weather, but there's always next time. I would love to go back again very soon, but this is a big year for us and we have a couple of other big vacations planned (for our 10th anniversary and later for Carter's 5th birthday). I can't wait for our next adventure!EDIT 5/10: I forgot to mention that we sat right next to Lucy Buffett at her restaurant Lulu's on our way out of town on Monday. She was kind of loud (but in a good way), dressed casually but in expensive clothes, and talking to all sorts of people around the bar area and we thought it might be her. I've seen her on TV before but I'm not good with faces, so we looked at some pictures on the wall on the way out and sure enough, it was her! So that's our little brush with fame.
EDIT (AGAIN) 5/10: I also forgot to mention that Carter ate raw oysters with me this trip! He loved them and ate two whole ones on two separate days (which amounted to about 4 or 5 big bites for him, so it was really a lot!).
1 comment:
WOW! Sounds like y'all had a blast! Love the pics! We would LOVE to go in on that condo - it sounds fabulous. Too bad it's not in the envelope. ;) Glad y'all had such a great trip...and had brushes with lots of famous people - Lucy and Rick and Bubba! :)
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