Florida!

We took off for Florida for an 11-day escape from our shelter in place order in Illinois. Because flight schedules were impossible to trust, we decided to drive instead. And, all things considered, it really wasn't bad. With an average speed of 75 mph, we were able to make the trip in 16 hours and 45 minutes of drive time. With stops, our total time was 17.5 hours. We armed the kids with unlimited snacks and wi-fi hot spots, which made their ride essentially the same as a quarantined day on the couch. We set their iPad timers for 20 hours so that they wouldn't bother us with the constant "Are we there yet?" questions, and they were all perfect backseat travelers! Dare I say that we would absolutely do this again?

Because we were staying at my parents' condo, we were all very familiar with the area, the restaurants, and the beaches. And because we are frequent visitors, we really didn't bother with many pictures. We were able to visit three new-to-us beaches while we were there, and may have added some new favorites to our beach list!

Wednesday was technically Day 1, but it was a travel day, and we arrived exhausted to the condo at 9:30 PM. Did I say that we left home at 3:15 AM? That was the hardest part of the entire journey!

Day 1. Thursday: Englewood Beach

{The boys loved this beach for the big waves.}

{Jacob made it his mission to dig a hole in the sand at every beach we went to. This came in especially handy when he wanted to snack without the birds attacking him!}

{Florida had begun reopening by the time we arrived. Many people were asking if beach goers were keeping socially distant. This may have been the least crowded of all beach days.}

{We capped off our day with a sunset dinner at our favorite beach restaurant: Sharky's. All staff wore masks, all menus were paper, kids were not given crayons to color with, and I drank my wine out of a disposable plastic cup. Things are not normal, but it was nice to be out in public!}

Day 2. Friday: Siesta Key Beach

{This will always be our favorite Florida beach. The sand is second to none and the water was clear, warm, and perfect for wave riding. I even body surfed with the boys (and ALL of the fish) for nearly an hour!}

{Camryn decided today was the day that she was going to take on the ocean. She did. And she never looked back. Get this girl her own boogie board!}

{Jacob dug quite the hole. The sand was perfect for excavation!}

Day 3. Saturday: Venice Beach.

No pictures because everyone was burnt, chafed, and blinded from sunscreen, so Caleb and I loaded up our car full of complainers and went back to the condo where we would spend the day in air conditioning.

{We did get some post-dinner ice cream to eat at the pier. Venice Beach had a few very large sand bars that would appear during the evening's low tide. We have never seen that there before!}

Day 4. Sunday. A very rainy Mother's Day.

Although it didn't actually rain until later in the afternoon, cloudy and cooler conditions kept us at the condo for the day where we took several walks around the neighborhood and the kids rode roller skates, roller blades, and skateboards. A perk to driving to vacation is all of the random crap you wouldn't normally be allowed to pack gets tossed in the back of the car! Camryn wore her skates for roughly the entire day (even when navigating the carpeted indoors) and almost nose-dived into the toilet at one point when she lost her balance. 

Day 5. Monday: Nokomis Beach.

We have never been to this beach, but we would definitely go back!

{Jacob in another self-constructed hole.}

We left Nokomis Beach late in the day with the hopes of swinging back to Venice Beach where we could swim out to the sand bar at low tide. Although we could see the waves swirling around where the sand bars were, they never came to the surface so we weren't able to cross that off our list of things to do. What we did do that we never even anticipated was watch a group of dolphins swim past us in shallow waters by the pier. That was so cool and very unexpected!

{Camryn at Venice Beach. Getting very brave, and very good at boogie boarding!}

Day 6. Tuesday: Manasota Beach. 

Another new must-visit beach!

Venice, Florida, where my parents' condo is located, is renowned for being the "shark tooth capital of the world." And while our efforts at finding shark teeth this trip had been weak at best, Manasota Beach held the mother load! There were so many teeth that we could find them without using our sand sifters as they were just laying on the surface of the sand. It was so much fun for everyone to hunt for them!

{This is what we came home with! We typically find a couple dozen throughout our trip to Florida. This was found over the course of a day!}

{Sea turtles are also laying eggs during this time of the year, so we came across several of these roped off areas at the different beaches we visited.}

Day 7. Wednesday: Back to Siesta Key Beach.

Coincidentally, we were able to meet up with neighborhood friends who also fled Illinois. Jacob was thrilled to spend the day swimming with his buddy!

{Keeping social distance. Never mind that they were sharing a snorkel.}

{The condo pool was closed when we arrived in Florida because they were redoing the concrete patio around the pool. We knew this when we made travel plans, and we weren't expecting it to reopen before we left. But, surprise. Pool's open! The kids hopped right in after spending the day swimming in the ocean!}

Day 8. Thursday: Back to Englewood Public Beach.

The kids wanted to go back to this beach because the waves were so big the first time when we went a week prior. Unfortunately, the waves were not big this time around, but the color of the water was Caribbean looking. We couldn't get over how differently the water looked just a few short days later!

{Camryn enticing the birds. They wanted the food, but wanted nothing to do with her so they waited until she lost interest before they swooped in and grabbed the bread that she tossed onto the sand.}

{The sandcastle that took way too much arguing and complaining to build.}

{One final Florida sunset at the pier.}

{Night swims are the best!}

Days 9-10. Friday and Saturday: Venice Beach and then home.

We had intended to drive home on Saturday and Sunday, but with overcast weather and storms on the way, we decided to head out a day early. First we took one last walk on the beach, hit up the souvenir shop, and took a quick dip in the pool.

{Doing beach yoga where my mom does beach yoga!}

{One more swim!}

{The Sunshine Bridge is a favorite of ours because it goes up SO high over the water. Problem is, you can't see just how high it goes when it's raining so hard that you can't even see! The left picture is us driving up the bridge in the POURING rain. The line in the middle is the top of the bridge. After we hit the top and started to go back down, the rain stopped and it was almost sunny. Crazy!}

We stayed the night just north of Atlanta before driving the rest of the way home the next day. After 10 hours of driving on Saturday--and a quick pit stop at Purdue University for Mason (and me)--we were back in our driveway at 5:30 PM and ready to rest! This was quite possibly the best way to spend a lock down!