February 24
Jack is my errand buddy. If I have to go to the grocery, to Target, drive across town to pick up Craig from baseball . . . whatever, wherever, he’ll come along. Sometimes he chats, sometimes he sits in companionable silence and listens to his ever-present Airpods. He always pushes the cart for me. I am taking him on a trip on a plane for his sixteenth birthday (probably – I got almost $1000 in Southwest credits to spend this year – I’ve decided to create a Sixteenth Birthday Tradition). Where should we go?
The five of us went on a trip down to Florida recently. Whenever we travel I jot notes and memories in the Notes app on my phone – here is what I recorded:
We stopped at Crystal River National Wildlife refuge to take the boardwalk trail and see the manatees (!!!! we almost bailed because it’s pricey but googled some Trip Advisor reviews that said it’s a Can’t Miss Activity in winter and early spring, and boy were they right!). The refuge protects Three Sisters Springs, which is a lil warm natural springs hot tub that the sea-potatoes all gather in when the Gulf gets too chilly in winter. It being February, the Gulf is still cold enough that the place was PACKED with manatees.
As we meandered around the boardwalk, the boys started discussing “If each of us was a sea creature, who would you be.” (I do not know why). I am going to share the answers because I LOVE mine, love it.
Liam: Octopus, because he is extremely smart, often uses his long lanky limbs/tentacles to sneakily snatch a thing and back out of the room, and likes people ok but will squirt you with ink of you irritate him. Figuratively.
Jack: Manta ray. They are playful (remember this videoed encounter we had in 2021?), don’t mind people touching them (at least in the Audubon Zoo touch tank), sociable but also ok alone sometimes. (Please don’t challenge my marine biology knowledge, but also don’t think anything I’m saying about any of these creatures is remotely researched or legitimate).
Craig: Minnow. Small, athletic, darts around, always wants to be surrounded by its school of other fishy friends.
Dad: Stonefish. I took no further notes on why.
Mom: Sea anemone or coral, because you are “very pretty, very vibrant ,and you house a lot of clownfish.” 🪸
We get to our hotel on Siesta Key after dark. It is a Hyatt Residence, so it’s basically condos for rent – huge kitchen, dining, front room, two big bedrooms and three full bathrooms. The primary bathroom had an EXTREMELY nice bidet (with a heated seat! And blue nightlight in the bowl!) on a toilet that had its own little small closet with a louvered door. Jack, who had braved bidets in Europe last summer, dared each boy to go in and try the bidet “on the back AND THEN on the front” while he filmed their giggled reaction from the other side of the door. I gotta get those videos man – it was great. Lots of jokes about tickling their junk, but I don’t mind toilet humor now and then and they were absolutely on the FLOOR laughing.
Here are the rest of the notes, which I will work up later perhaps, but right now I have to go pick up a kid and rather than let this linger in drafts for months, I will publish!
Gillian Josephine
Whole
Beach dotted in jellies – size of a hubcap. Four pink loops of what – intestines?
Perfect small conch – occupied!
Shell trees – like bottle trees
always looking for things that come in groups of five
Jack Aztec puzzle
Mennonites in the morning
Tropical island vibes – Craig
Liam giggling in the closet
Liam calls the old pier a sea henge
Boys doing accents and being tour guides
Dad jokes
Look to your right and you’ll see a wild Deere says Craig – John Deere tractor
Texting t swift lyrics in the car w Craig. You cheated! No. I know Taylor swift