Palm Coast, Part I - Picture Overload...

On Thursday afternoon, we headed south! We made a stop in Tifton so that we could go to Ferry Lake Fishing Club for dinner. It POURED on us while we made the trip to Tifton, let up long enough for us to drop Scout and James off (Scout at the Fresh's, James at Cacky and Poppy's), and POURED on us on our way to Ferry Lake. It POURED the whole time we were out there. With the metal roof it sounded like hail!

After dinner we hurried back to pick up James and hit the road again. We didn't leave Tifton until around 9:30. Eddie is NOT a night-time driver and I worried the whole trip that we were going to wreck...especially in Jacksonville with the construction! AHH! We finally made it to the condo at 1:15.

The good news is that James slept the entire way down, ate when we got to the condo and went right back to sleep. The bad news is that he is not a fan of the Pack 'N Play anymore and didn't sleep well the whole trip. In fact, he slept in the bed with us part of the time.

When we woke up on Friday morning, this was our view. Fantastic. It made the long night-time trip totally worth it!

We got sunscreened up and headed to the pool mid-morning. Thankfully, the heater was still turned on but it wasn't bathwater warm for sure. I didn't take my camera out so I don't have James' first pool experience, but I do have the ones from Saturday morning for Part II.

After we came in, had lunch, and James took a nap, we headed back out to the beach!

At Palm Coast, the beach is ROCKY. Sometimes sand covers the rocks so there are more places to sit, but it is currently ALL ROCKS. (Palm Coast is about a mile south of Marineland...several miles south of St. Augustine.)

We were well aware that our beach trip could be a bust. If he wasn't crazy about the water or the sand, we might not spend much time outside. He'd enjoyed his pool time that morning, but the sand might be a different story.

He didn't mind it at all! In fact, he enjoyed playing in it and eating a handful or two! I think we've got a little beach bum/water bug on our hands!

Even the water, which was COLD, wasn't a problem. He just took it all in!

As we were standing up to head back in, I saw a big splash to my right. I told Eddie that I had just seen either a dolphin or a really big fish jump out of the water. Low and behold...

They put on a whole dolphin show for us!

I was so excited! Dolphins are my FAVORITE animals. I could've sat and watched all afternoon, but they took their show on up the beach.

Our first beach day was a blast! That night we went out to dinner at the European Village and ate a Barbara Jean's (we're not sure what all the hype is about...it was just ok). Then, in true redneck fashion, we took a trip to The Walmarts. Since we had a LOT of inside time on our hands we bought Yahtzee. Eddie had never played and it was so much fun!

Stay tuned for the rest of the weekend...