At the beach

Yesterday Maria called me shortly before noon and told me that she, Mac, and Jochebed were on I-10 heading towards Ft. Walton Beach where they would be for a few days. She asked if we could come see them while they were there. Steve said he had work to do all week, but he thought the children and I should go for a day and see our friends.

The children agreed that was a good idea, and immediately set to work on finishing Tuesday's assignments, in addition to Monday's. They also decided to bring along work for Wednesday and Thursday to do on the trip to Florida - and Maria called back and asked if Sarah and Joan could stay in Florida with them until Thursday.

Poor Jacy had to stay home because she couldn't miss her pre-calculus class, but we sent her plenty of photos on her phone so it was almost as though she were there!

Maria also had lunch for us - delicious fresh fruit and sandwiches (I tried mortadella for the first time) and guava cakes, which were another first, and very tasty! The children swam in the Gulf, walked on the beach (they loved the fine white sand - Marley said later, "It squeaks when you walk on it!") collected shells and fragments of shells, then went swimming in the hotel pool. We ate our lunch by the pool, then went back to the beach and swam some more. Rough day!

We left at dawn this morning, returned at dusk this evening, and in between had a lovely time with friends.