This week we took a road trip, from our road trip ….

We parked the RV in Eastpoint, Florida and parked Mr Bear nearby at Penelope’s Pet Stop. The Jetta was loaded with our ragtag assortment of warm clothes, and we made the long drive to New York for my nephew Ben’s Bar Mitzvah. The first night we stopped in Atlanta, where we had a nice overnight visit with Nancy (we slept in Michael’s bedroom, which is about four times bigger than our entire RV). The second night we stayed at a very dumpy hotel in Ashland, Virginia (Andy is happy to give all the details about the cheap dump I “made” us stay in.). And on day three we arrived at Grandma’s house, in very, very cold Connecticut.

The visit with Grandma was nice and relaxing, and the kids enjoyed the SIX inches of snow (the grownups less so). We all went to Shabbat dinner on Friday night and then services and the party on Saturday. At the party Becca made some friends and ate obscene amounts of chocolate. Jay missed his nap, and ran around collecting balloons and trying to play basketball with the big kids.

Barney was a very well behaved guest. He stayed close to us when we were home, and napped in his crate when we went out. On his walks he desperately searched for bit of grass, before finally giving up and doing his business on the snow

The return trip was long, yet uneventful. Night one in Statesville, North Carolina. Night two back at Nancy’s in Atlanta. And on day three we arrived back in Florida where we picked up the RV and Mr. Bear, and headed to the beach for the week.

Though it was a lovely visit with family, it is nice to be back to our little home. And it is very nice to be back to the warm temps!

We had a great time at St. Joseph Peninsula State Park, a beautiful peninsula in the Florida Panhandle. The beach was very pretty. One day, Little Kid made friends with a boy named Ben. The next day, Ben and I were digging tunnels and holes together. We built a huge tunnel, but when it was almost done, it collapsed. I spent a lot of my time playing in and working on a huge hole that everyone called “the hot tub”. Right before we left, I made a tunnel into the hot tub. It was super cool! Because it was cold, we spent a little time running in the water, but not that much.

One day, we were on the beach when we noticed a dolphin swimming just past the breaking waves. Soon, we started to wonder how it was going under, then appearing somewhere completely different a second later. We realized that it wasn’t one dolphin, but it was a whole pod. They were swimming around, slapping their fins, and jumping. It looked like they were playing!

Little Kid liked all the college boys on the beach. One day, there were a few college kids lying on the beach. Little Kid walked over, looked at them, then lay down next to them. It was very funny. Another day, Little Kid made friends with another college kid. The kid built a hole for Little Kid and ran back and forth, bringing water to the hole. Ma said, “you can help too, Jay,” and Little Kid said, “no, I like it this way.”

When we left St. Joe’s, we dropped the RV off at a storage place, brought Mr. Bear, my rabbit, to a boarding place, and then hopped in the car and headed towards Connecticut for my cousin’s bar mitzvah.

We all loved Saint Andrews State Park, near Panama City Beach. The campground was on a lagoon, and we went to the Gulf of Mexico beach every day. There was a huge sandy beach, and a jetty where Little Kid and I could wade without being knocked down by waves. The beach was so awesome that we had a picnic on it one night. When we were almost done eating, some seagulls noticed our food. We spent the rest of the time chasing away the seagulls. Little Kid ran around screaming and chasing the seagulls. He was probably very excited to see us going crazy. We were walking back to the car when Ma said, “There is something diving out there. ” I looked over and saw a fin come up. “Dolphin!” Ma and I yelled at the same time. We watched it come up and dive down until the dolphin disappeared in the fog. It was so peaceful, yet so amazing. The fog was so thick that it looked like a fairyland.

One day, we hiked down a little peninsula called Sandy Point. On the way, we met some very friendly deer. The first one was standing right on the edge of the trail. We walked right past her, but she didn’t move. A little later, we turned around and saw the same deer walking down the trail behind us. When we stopped, the deer came up to us sniffing around. More deer came, all very close to us. One actually touched my hand with it’s nose!

Another day at the beach, we found some steep dunes to jump off of. I made up a game where Ma threw the frisbee to me when I jumped off the dune, and I tried to catch it in mid-air. We played this game and other dune jumping games every time we went to the beach. One day, I met some kids, and we collected hermit crabs together. The biggest hermit crab was bold enough to pinch one of the kids!

When our nine days at Saint Andrews were over, we went to another beach called Saint Joseph.