Daytona Beach

Thursday evening we took off for Daytona Beach, Florida to visit my brother Jeff. He moved down there last October with the hopes of attending Embry Riddle University. It is an Aeronautical Engineering school, which is something he is most interested in. Jeff is one smart dude, let me tell you. Some of the conversations I've heard between he and Josh, he and Greg, he and anybody have blown my little ol' mind. He is way into physics, relativity, quantum this and that... I can't keep up.

He is having to work on some pre-requisite stuff at Daytona State College before going to Embry Riddle, and also acquire "resident" status in order to avoid out of state tuition. He made Dean's List last semester and is looking forward to his Summer classes, which started today. So, hopefully by Spring Semester he'll be good to go and can learn him some aeronautical engineering. I'm so glad to see him so excited and really enjoying what he's working towards.

I may have said this before, but we all kind of thought he was crazy when he up and left in October, taking only the necessities and his dog to Florida with him. He loaded it up in Greg's cargo trailer and off they went. He left me and a friend in his front yard selling all of his belongings. It was a bit of a whirlwind at the time, but now I see that he just really needed to simplify his life and do something for himself for a change. That's exactly what he has done.

He has a modest little one bedroom apartment with only the things that he needs to survive. And I mean that fairly literally. He does not have a bed, just some blankets on the floor, but he mostly sleeps on his couch. He has no cable television, just a selection of his favorite movies. A small dining set, the necessary kitchen appliances, a computer and a desk. That's pretty much it. Which seems kind of strange, but it allows him to focus on school, which is the whole reason for going down there. No distractions. Kudos to you, Jeff.

Anyway.... I didn't say all that to make you think he is a poor beach bum, I said it to let you know why I was a little nervous about spending 4 days down there with an 18 month old. I didn't know how this was going to work out. Bennett is funny about sleeping anywhere but in his own crib (and by funny, I mean it's NOT FUNNY AT ALL). Jeff is used to being alone in that apartment, being able to stay up and watch movies loudly if he wants, sleep in, hang out, stretch out, you know. And here we come with all our bags and boxes of food and Bennett's portable crib. All of a sudden, you have to be quiet between the hours of 11am and 2pm while Bennett naps, the movies have to be played at half volume in the evenings because the baby is sleeping, and here we come out of the bedroom at 8am every morning, ready to rock and roll. I have to make Bennett's breakfast, and Bennett's job is to wake up Edgar and Uncle Jeff, who are on the couch.

That being said, Jeff didn't seem to be bothered in the slightest. I don't know if he really didn't mind us taking over his apartment, or if he was just being nice and tolerating it. It really wasn't bad at all; Bennett did soooo much better than I thought he would with the sleeping thing. It was actually quite a breeze. And he and Edgar adored each other, so that helped too. Jeff enjoyed seeing what all Bennett is doing these days, and kept him entertained a lot of the time with his silly scatting, noises, and faces.

The first day we were the there (which was Friday, since we didn't get there until 2am Friday morning - yuck), we just hung out at Jeff's. We didn't go to the beach because Bennett's sleep schedule was all out of whack, and the pool at his complex was closed because the filter was broken. So, we watched movies all day. K-Pax, Gran Turino (which I loved), and Next.

Bennett spent his time getting into all of Uncle Jeff's stuff. It's amazing how quickly you can baby proof a place - of course Bennett brought us all the things that needed to be put away, so that was helpful.

And we got to see this guy. Jeff said it's a Florida soft shell turtle. They stay in the pond that is in the middle of his apartment complex, but this guy decided to take a stroll. He was pretty crazy looking.

Then on Saturday, we hit the beach early. We went to a public beach called Sun Splash Park. It was a great little place with a playground, infant/toddler swings, and a big area with fountains spraying up from the ground.

We first posed for a shot of the sunglass family. Check out the Elvis smirk on Bennett's face. :)

Bennett loves his sunglasses. I'm so glad he doesn't try to take them off when we put them on. He actually loves wearing them. The whole reason I got them for him is because when Josh comes home from work, a lot of times he'll kneel down, take off his sunglasses, and put them on Bennett. Bennett will walk around in them for a little while. So, when I saw these at Wal-Mart I just had to get them. I don't regret that purchase.

He played in the sand, but didn't want to get to close to the water. One step at a time, I guess.

We played in the sand while Jeff and Josh played in the ocean. Unfortunately, nobody got to play too long because the bottom fell out right on top of us. It was raining so hard I couldn't see to walk. We wrapped Bennett up in a towel, grabbed all our stuff, and headed towards the steps.... when it stopped. Josh and I looked at each other, shrugged our shoulders, and headed back to the sand. Jeff had taken a load to the car, but came back down to meet us. We got to play for a little while before it started again. This time we gathered our things and actually went up.

We did stop at the fountains, though, because the rain was a little lighter and there were no signs of lightning. I didn't know if Bennett was going to love this or hate it. He didn't really do either. He was getting tired by this time, and just wanted to lay in his Daddy's lap.

We did get a smile out of him. :)

These fountains were great. What a great way to rinse your kids off without having to fool with a rinky dink shower that's cold and that you have to operate with one hand while trying to rinse you and your child and not get all your other belongings wet (although getting our belongings wet wasn't an issue this day - they were already toast).

Back at Jeff's place and post nap, we went to the pool (which had been fixed - yay!). Like I mentioned a few posts back, Bennett did not at all enjoy the pool when we went a couple weeks ago. It took a lot just to get Bennett sitting where you see him in this photo below. He sat there for a while, and after a while we got him in the water. He didn't like it at all at first, but we gradually got him to halfway enjoy it. Maybe next try we'll get him to fully enjoy it. We'll keep trying, for sure. A few more trips to Nancy's (my mom's cousin) and Nancy's (my dad's sister) pools, and we'll be ready for St. George Island at the end of August.

This is Bennett's orangutan walk. He does this when he gets something on his foot, or if the ground/floor is unusually hot or cold. He'll go walking across our kitchen floor like this sometimes. It's pretty entertaining.

The last day (yesterday) we got up and had breakfast at Crabby Joe's, Jeff's favorite place to eat breakfast. It's on a pier, so you get to enjoy a meal while looking out at the ocean, and the breeze comes through the open windows that surround the restaurant. We had a nice breakfast, and then took a drive through an area near Tomoka State Park, which was beautiful. Then we went back to Jeff's and while Bennett napped, we packed up our things so we could get going once he woke up.

We didn't wind up leaving as early as we wanted, but the ride wasn't bad and we got back earlier than we had expected. It was a great trip, and I kind of wish we had had a couple more days down there. I guess we'll just have to look forward to next time!