day of the dead

Every other year or so (or maybe it's every third year?), our town does a cemetery walk. If you really paid attention to this blog (it's fine that you didn't!) you might remember that Liam, Max, and I went to the very first one back in 2009 with my mom and Avalon. We haven't gone again since (the timing just hasn't worked out), but I made a point of going this year because my great-grandparents were one of the stops!

The Plymouth History Walk is a sort of reenactment of selected residents at the Oakhill Cemetery. This year, among others, there was a young Navy soldier who died during World War II, a soldier fighting the Indian War who may or may not have delivered Custer's final message from his last stand but definitely fathered ten kids afterward, and various other prominent townspeople. The best stop, of course, was the Jeffirs one. Great-Grandpa Jeff (his actual first name was Edmund) was played by my Uncle Kent, and Great-Grandma Ethel (who was much too formal for a nickname) was played by my Aunt Janis.

They did a wonderful job! They told the story of how Grandpa Jeff went into business with his dad and built Indiana Motor Bus Company in the 1920s. He drove one of the buses, and one of the passengers was Grandma Ethel, whom he made eyes at in the mirror until finally asking her for a date. They talked about living in the big brick house on Michigan Street and hosting the whole town for a cookout after the Labor Day parade each year. They talked about my grandpa and his sisters, and how eventually Grandpa Jeff sold the bus company and decided to buy a car dealership, and as his father had done for him, went into business with his son (my grandpa). They described Grandma Ethel's looooong life and how she was a talented musician who gave accordion lessons, and eventually took up playing the harmonica again when she was 100 years old. (She was 102 when she died.)

The best part was that family members came from near and far, and we all did the tour together (except for Kent and Janis, of course). Gramps was there, along with my mom and dad and Loni and Jack; my uncles Mike, Mark, and Greg; my aunts Dana and Laura; and assorted cousins. It was really fun! Afterward, we all went to Ponderosa for dinner and took up a few of their big tables. A really great Sunday.

P.S. Janis is wearing Grandma Ethel's hat, gloves, fur, and jewelry; Kent is wearing Grandpa Jeff's hat. I love that we have these treasures in our family!

sayonara sunrise

After a long day of travel, we're finally back home. The boys are dreading getting up for school tomorrow, and Mike and I feel the same about work. But we had such a great time and saw so many amazing things that any lingering exhaustion (or work backup, in my case) was totally worth it.

This morning, Liam and Max came with me to Blind Pass, the waterway that separates Sanibel Island from Captiva Island, so we could do some shelling while the sun came up. I had read that there is a very small parking lot on the beach we had picked out (on the Captiva side), so we got there when it was still dark and were the first ones there. As soon as the sky lightened the tiniest bit, we got out and went looking and hit the mother lode. Shells, shells, and more shells! We found gorgeous Florida fighting conchs, turbans (a new one to me), augers, all kinds of treasures. We hit it at just the right time and really got lucky. The sunrise view wasn't great, but the shells more than made up for it.

Meanwhile, back at Paradise Resort (not the real name), Mike and Henry woke up and decided to do some beachcombing of their own down on Paradise Beach (also not the real name). Mike took a gorgeous sunrise shot, and Henry got his own Florida fighting conch! 

Once I got back with the older boys and box of donuts, we ate breakfast, then decided to test the power of our magic bracelets. Sadly, we couldn't use the kayaks or paddleboards because the waves were too choppy. Boo! Instead, we consoled ourselves by hanging out at this crappy pool until it was time for checkout. And believe me, we didn't waste a minute. :)

once in a lifetime

As you know, when we go somewhere, we tend to get there and then book a little side trip somewhere, and this time was no exception. Since we knew were were going to the Everglades, we decided that instead of coming back to Sarasota for our last night, we would take a little detour. I looked up good places to find shells, and the results were pretty unanimous: Sanibel Island. So then I went to one of those travel booking sites and picked the cheapest room that would accommodate all five of us. We've had mixed results doing this; sometimes some of us have to sleep on the floor, or the room has structural issues or cleanliness issues, and sometimes it's perfectly fine. This time it was neither.

We arrived at our very reasonably priced hotel shortly after check-in time started, looking -- and frankly, smelling -- like we had spent the day mucking around in the Everglades. Imagine our surprise when we entered a giant marble lobby with an entire wall of windows overlooking the Gulf of Mexico and a massive chandelier overhead! And if you can get past that mental picture, imagine our jaws dropping and our eyes widening as the concierge handed us bracelets that allowed us to take advantage of free bike, kayak, and paddleboard rentals, then gave us a set of cards that would allow us to check out fresh beach/pool towels, and then followed that up by handing us cards that would allow us to charge things to our room ... for example, dinner from one of the four on-site restaurants, or perhaps something from the full grocery store. Imagine the glances that passed between us; they clearly communicated, "What have we done? There's obviously been some mistake here!"

But no, there wasn't actually a mistake. So we signed the papers and got our room keys and drove around to one of the other buildings on the ... I can only call it a campus. And it turns out that our "room" was a two-bedroom, two-bath condo overlooking the Gulf. Here's the view from our bedroom:

And this is the view from our private screened-in balcony:

I'll give you a minute or two to pick up your jaws.

Anyway, we wasted no time pulling on our suits, checking out our fancy towels, and heading down to the private beach (!!!), where we frolicked in the water and found tons of interesting shells. We stayed until a storm rolled in and the wind picked up and it was getting too dark to see what we were doing. Then we headed back up to our room, everyone took showers, and we ordered pizza from the on-site pizzeria, because really, what else could we do? And now we're all sad that we only get to live in this splendor for one night, because we could totally get used to being high rollers.

action sequence

everglades adventure!

I hope you're ready for a lot of pictures!

Before we left for this trip, we gave the boys a choice: spend one day in Orlando, say, at the Wizarding World of Harry Potter theme park, or spend one day in Everglades National Park. Because we are not made of money or time, we told them, it would be impossible to do both. Then we asked them to close their eyes and do a show of hands for each. And it turns out that when they can't see how people are voting and then argue with them just for fun (which obviously is NOT fun for us), they actually agree with each other. We were a little surprised (because they are HP fans) but mostly proud that they unanimously chose a trip to the Everglades over the wonders of Harry Potter.

The next problem was figuring out where to go. The Everglades is a BIG place, and the park headquarters is near Miami, so all the way on the other side of the state, more than 5 hours' drive from Sarasota. Yikes! I have been super-busy with work (I know, I always say that, but it's been really overwhelming lately) so Mike took over the research on this one, and he came up with a couple of different plans, but the winner was to go to the Shark Valley Visitor Center and take a tram tour. Still a little more than 3 hours away, but much more doable.

We made reservations for the tram, mapped everything out online, left Sarasota with plenty of time to spare ... and still somehow ended up running 10 minutes late. Being the conscientious and apologetic type, I called to let them know that we were going to be late so they could release our seats to other people if they needed to. But luck was on our side! It turns out we were the ONLY ones who had reservations for the 9 a.m. tram ride, and they were more than willing to wait for us. They even gave us time to use the slippery-floored bathroom and douse ourselves in bug spray (apparently today was the day they mowed the whole place, so the mosquitoes got stirred up and realized how hungry they were) before we all jumped on the tram and headed out.

The added bonus of being the only ones to sign up for the early morning tram tour in the off season was that we had two tour guides all to ourselves. They were so friendly and knowledgeable! They pointed out all the wildlife, talked to us about the different ecosystems, described the threat of invasive snake species (yikes!), and just generally made the whole place come alive. I'm not sure I've ever seen the boys so attentive for such a long time!

At the halfway point, we stopped and walked a short path to get to the observation tower, which gave us endless views of the vast landscape. It was hot and beautiful and buggy. Really, really buggy. We looked our fill from the observation tower, and as we headed down the path back to the tram, we passed some men doing more mowing and weed whacking, and of course that stirred up even more bugs, so we all dashed back to the tram, where we found our guides in a hurry to take off so the wind could blow some of the bugs away. They said they very rarely have trouble with bugs, and that this is the worst they've seen. The story of our lives.

The back half of the ride went a lot faster because there were fewer places near the path where there were alligators and birds, but we did get the classic Everglades experience: a giant alligator sunning itself in the road, then spotting us and getting up in a very leisurely manner to stroll back into the tall grasses.

Overall, Mike estimates that we saw at least 20 alligators (I was telling people we saw a dozen, but he was actually counting them). We saw tons of birds too, including egrets, herons (including a tri-color heron!), hawks, kingfishers, and ibis. The one bird I really wanted to see on this trip was the roseate spoonbill, but it turns out they don't migrate here until winter. Guess that gives us a reason to come back!