We just returned from a 6 day trip to the Orlando, Florida area to celebrate my in-law's 80th birthdays. On the way down, we stopped only twice. The first stop was just at a rest stop, and the second, I saw a sign for "Historic Micanopy" and so, I took that exit for our second stop. As I pulled into a really old looking museum a bit of friction developed in the vehicle. Someone was a little concerned that I would want to stay longer than he would like. After promising I wouldn't and making my case for "why shouldn't we just stop here when we needed to stop somewhere anyways", we unloaded and I walked into a most eccentric museum. There aren't many photos because, well, I was in a hurry. A really nice elderly woman was the museum's historian and she walked over and began to give us a history lesson. It went sort of like this....
Historian: "The Timucuan Indians were the first to live here in this area. Unfortunately they all died because of....
Micah: "....illness's brought over from the Spanish...."
Historian: "Yes! Because they were not...."
Micah: "immune to those diseases yet."
Apparently Micah needs to learn to allow people, especially his elders, to finish their own sentences, but it was neat to see how he already knew these things. He is learning something in homeschool! Yeah! (Now if we can just get caught up in Math!!!)
We had stumbled upon the first inland settlement in Florida which became an official city in 1821. It was named after Chief Micanopy, who was chief of the Seminole Indians. He and his people challenged the U.S. Government efforts to remove them from their lands. I picked up a booklet on the town and another small book called, "Billy Bowlegs and the Seminole War". I enjoyed reading through it during the remainder of our drive and giving the boys a history lesson. I'm not sure how much they enjoyed it, but for me, there is just something thrilling about learning, especially history.
We drove down a couple days prior to the birthday celebrations so that we could take the boys to the beach and Steve's father also treated us to a day at Disney's Animal Kingdom.
I spent a lot of time researching which beach to go to. Due east from my in-law's house is mostly inlets and no good beaches. To the west I wanted to find a beach not super crowded. I wanted a "nature" experience, beautiful water, fish, hermit crabs, tidal pools, coastal breezes, you know. The works.
Based on the reviews for Smyrna Dunes Park, near New Smyrna Beach, I thought for sure, we had found it.
----------------What ARE those cars doing on the beach?????-----------------
I have never been to a beach with cars lining the coastline. I was shocked and dismayed. There went my bubble. Popped. Sometimes my expectations are just too high. :) Alas.... Well, the kids didn't care one bit about the cars. Actually Samuel was having his own crisis of beach experience.
This little guy was absolutely terrified of the ocean. It was like the water that he couldn't run away from. It just kept coming in waves of living water.
Dad tried to no avail to get him to put his feet in.
Eventually though, we were able to put him down to play in the sand. We learned a lot about Samuel this trip. He definitely has a timid personality.
We also learned Isaac isn't too old to play in the sand. Smile.
And Benjamin is absolutely fear-less. Towards the end of our trip we were standing near a rocky outcrop and I could tell the water quickly became deep (as in 2-3 feet) near the rocks. We were talking to someone but I was watching Benjamin as he was standing very close to this drop and I saw the potential danger. Sure enough he fell into the deeper part, or walked into, I'm not sure which. I had my eye on him, so I saw it happen. We were about 20 feet away, and quickly pulled him out, but it was scary none the less. It is frightening being at the beach with five children. Two of which cannot swim at all, and another that doesn't swim well. Thank goodness for God's providential care.
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