Destin Day 2
7/12
We slept great in the RV last night. We woke up at 8 am Central which is like 9 am Eastern. We've been on Eastern time for a week, so I think the kids have become acclimated. It got surprisingly cold last night. When we got here and it was 95 degrees and very humid, I was worried the air conditioner wouldn't ever cool the RV down enough. I'm not sure what the temperature got down to, but when I woke up I was definitely grasping for blankets. When I woke up early in the morning to go to the bathroom, I saw Arden's blanket fell of her top bunk, and she was only using a little blanket she sleeps with. I grabbed her big blanket off of the floor and covered her up.
I walked down to the main office to arrange the golf cart. They had one to rent, but it was still charging, so we had to wait to pick it up until 9:30. There was a pancake breakfast at 8:30 at the main office, so I went back to get the kids and Tracy to go to eat some pancakes. Tracy brought her own healthy food, which she has done all trip. It's been so a challenge to eat well on this trip. We both discussed yesterday how that's part of the fun, eating the local cuisines, but I fear stepping on the scale when I get back. We walked down to the pancake breakfast, and it was nothing like the pancake breakfast at Mt. Rushmore. They had pancakes, coffee, and orange juice. This one was also $2 like the Mt. Rushmore pancake breakfast, but no guys throwing pancakes around. We ate quickly and walked to get the golf cart after breakfast. While there we bought the kids body boards. We drove the golf cart back to our site and got ready for the beach. Destin, FL is spread out and we definitely needed a car, so Tracy was handling getting us a car for the day. The rental car guy showed up to drive me back to their office to do the paperwork. Most campgrounds have their own cars to rent or a service that does it. It's pretty efficient and we opted for doing this versus towing a car the whole time.
After I got back from getting the rental car, we went to the beach. It was only a few hundred feet to the beach from the RV. The beaches here are beautiful and have light white sand. The beach was really busy. Most of the people in our area were from the campground. We recognized some of the kids and parents. We brought our beach toys and body boards. The kids had a blast. I went out in the water and helped them catch some waves body boarding. I dug a huge hole and buried them in the sand. Davis saw some boys the day before doing what I think is called skimboarding. That's where you run along the edge of the water on the beach and throw a small, thin wooden surfboard on the water and ride it into the waves. He wanted to try so we all sat there watching him standing on his board waiting for a wave to take him. It was so cute. We both discussed how we could find the next vacation spot where he could learn to surf. We had talked about parasailing for a number of days before we left and showed the kids what it is on YouTube. I thought they'd wimp out, but they wanted to do it. I had called earlier in the day, but never made a reservation. The skies started to get dark and it was clear a storm was coming. We headed back to the RV to wait out the storm. It rained really hard for an hour or so. We decided to go out for lunch, and go get Tucker his dog food. We went to PF Changs for lunch, and laughed because my sister would cringe we were eating PF Changs on an RV trip. We gladly had our spicy chicken and fried rice.
After lunch I called a few parasailing companies, and none of them were flying yet. They said to call back later when they got approval on the weather. I called back later in the afternoon once the skies were much clearer and we got connected with a local company. We left for our parasailing adventure.
I've got to admit when we pulled in to the marina to go parasailing I wasn't feeling too confident. The marina entrance was the front of a trailer park. At the back of the park it became a marina where trucks and boat trailers were parked. I figured if someone would insure people to parasail out of this dump we'd be relatively safe. On the way into the boat Davis told Arden, "Arden, if you puke, puke on Mom" and Arden replied "actually, since you brought it up if I puke I'm going to puke on you." If that's not sibling love I don't know what is.
We ended up on a nice, clean boat with two young guys that knew what they were doing. Another Dad, his daughter and her friend were on the boat and they went first. Tracy and I parasailed for the first time a few years ago in Miami. There have been a bunch of firsts on this trip for the kids that we experienced in the last 10 years that they'll experience before they were 10. At every adventure we tell them they need to be thankful for these opportunities, that we didn't get to do these things when we were kids, and if they wanted to do things like this when they were older, they would need to work hard and save their money. I'm hopeful the message sinks in, because it's one of the most important things in my life that my kids become self sufficient, and good people. There were only us and the other group on the boat, which I was excited about because it would speed up the process. When it was our turn they said all 4 of us could go together which was cool. Usually Davis and I will go first on adventures like this, and when we live through it, Tracy and Arden go next. This means I rarely get the opportunity to go with Arden. We went up a few hundred feet in the air and hung out for a bit looking around the bay. It was peaceful and fun to be up there with the kids. On the way back onto the boat the guy dipped us into the water which was fun.
After parasailing we went to Riverwalk Gardens which is a lakefront tourist trap with restaurants and shops. We ate at a sushi place on the water and had fun. The real fun was after dinner.
Favorite part of the day:
Mom - playing at beach watching kids body surf
Dad - when Davis told Arden to puke on Mom if she had to puke
Arden - body surfing
Davis - saw the guys cutting up fish after parasailing and parasailing and surfing and bodysurfing (Davis always has favorite PARTS of the day)
After dinner Tracy went and shopped around, while I took the kids to do some of the activities. As soon as we walked out of the restaurant we saw the zip line. The kids were excited to do it. When we paid for zip line they also offered an experience called Free Fall which is a modified 100' bungee jump. The only modification is, there is a brake on the rope so when you get to the bottom it slows you down versus letting you bounce. You still have to walk off a 100' tower, which is super scary. I showed the kids a video of Free Fall and asked if they also wanted to do it. To my surprise they both said yes. I gave them a 50/50 chance of doing the zip line, and even less on the Free Fall. The people running the zip line said I couldn't walk up with them, which made me feel like they'd have a higher probability of doing it.
Of course when they got up to the zip line, Arden got Davis to go first. He went with no problems and she went next. They enjoyed it and weren't even scared. They came running down asking to do it again. I told them we had to walk down to the Free Fall. We walked down to the other zip line tower, and they walked up the stairs to the top. I have to admit I was nervous for them. The people running these rides were probably 20 years old. I'm sure they're trained thoroughly, but at 20 how attentive could these kids be? A few of the workers came down and sat at the base of the jump. After a few minutes a crowd of about 25 people started to congregate waiting for someone to do the jump. When they saw it was two little kids they were all excited. I saw Arden get into the harness and put on the helmet first. She was yelling down to me that she was scared. I told her she'd be fine, but she didn't have to do it. The workers at the bottom said most kids wimp out. She yelled back down that she wasn't going to do it, and Davis was going to go. He put the helmet and harness on, and walked to the edge of the platform. He stood there for a few seconds, and just walked right off. Everyone gathered around clapped, as he fell 100' to the bottom. I was so proud of him. I was proud he had the heart to just walk up and jump off at 6 years old. The guys running the deal said he was the youngest kid they've seen do it. Of course 10 seconds later Arden yelled down that she was going to go. She put the helmet and harness back on, and came to the edge of the platform. I saw her discussing it with the guy up top and eventually she walked off the platform. I was proud of her too. I'm sure it would be scary for anyone to walk off a 100' platform much less a 6 or 8 year old. Tracy was not by us, because she wasn't willing to watch the kids zip line or free fall, so she finally came walking up, and said I had now put the kids lives at risk three times today.
Video of D jumping
Video of A jumping http://youtu.be/ldY27m_q5F4
I told the kids since they were so brave, I would get them ice cream. We went and got our ice cream, did a few more activities, and hopped in the car to head back to the RV. We were exhausted. We planned to drive to New Orleans the next day, so we wanted to get the kids to bed early. What a great day.
This is the free fall tower
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