The Lee Family: At the Beach!

On Monday morning we flew American Airlines to Daytona Beach for a few days at the beach with Grandma and Grandpa. Grandpa and Grandma rented a nice three bedroom condo on Ormond Beach, which is just north of Daytona Beach. Growing up CK spent time every summer at Daytona Beach, so it brings back a lot of good memories and the beach is close for Grandpa and Grandma. We flew commercial because at the end of our stay, CK and Sofia plan an adventure together flying the Piper Cub to Scott, Mississippi where the Cub will be overhauled and recovered over the new few months. Olivia and I have tickets to return to DFW on Saturday morning and CK and Sofia plan to return on Tuesday next week.

We arrived in Daytona Monday around 6pm and Sofia was determined to go to the beach! The girls got into their suits and we headed to the beach. She and Olivia had a great time splashing around until it was nearly dark outside. In the coming days, I quickly learned that the girls have very different views on the beach. Sofia loves to go to the beach as soon as she's done with breakfast and wants to spend the entire day swimming, boogie boarding, building sand castles, making up stories, collection sea shells and enjoying the beach all day long. Olivia, on the other hand, spends maybe an hour or two swimming, boogie boarding, jumping into crashing waves and then is done once she has "sand in her crouch." Also, the afternoon before we left, she was scootering with Natalia and Antonio and fell hard and scrapped her knee and elbow badly. So, the salt water made her scraps hurt too. Once they started hurting, she wanted me to pour drinking water on them and then she was done with the ocean. So, Sofia and I ended up spending a lot of time together on the beach, while Olivia spent more time with her Grandma either at the pool or in the condo. She also spent a lot of time watching shows on CK's iPad.

Thankfully the weather was perfect. It was a bit overcast and although the temperature was in the low 90s, it never really felt very hot. It was pleasant to sit out on the beach blanket and read (or sleep) and take a dip in the ocean from time to time. The water felt great too and it was completely relaxing to sit on the beach, read, think, listen to the waves, and watch Sofia. We would generally arrive at the beach around 10am and set up our beach blanket, towels, beach toys, boogie boards, and bag with waters and my book and sunscreen and the girls would swim. The water would slowly recede as the afternoon arrived and a small shallow lake would appear and another beach on the other side of it. The girls loved to play in the shallow lake and the beach birds would hunt for sand crabs and small fish. The water in the small lake would get pretty hot too! Then, around 4pm every day it would get stormy and usually rain for a bit. It was a nice break after a full day at the beach. One morning, while Sofia played on the beach, I went into the water up to my knees and saw a long black sea animal swimming at the wave line. At first I thought it was a dolphin, but it soon became clear that it wasn't! It was so big! I tried to get Sofia over to take a look, but by the time she got her glasses, the sea animal was long gone! It's easy to forget that we swim with all marine animals when we are out in the ocean.

On Thursday, Sofia and I spent the entire day on the beach and built a pretty cool sand castle together. We planned to go swim with the dolphins on Friday, so we likely wouldn't have much time on the beach Friday before we would leave for the dolphins. Thursday was so much fun, and even as the rain clouds gathered behind us for their daily rain shower, Sofia didn't want to leave until she really had to go upstairs. It was such a fun visit and the beach water and temperature couldn't have been better. Unfortunately, CK didn't get to enjoy it as much as we did since he had to fly to Boston early Thursday morning for a few work meetings. He was scheduled to return around 2pm Friday and we planned to go miniature golfing together after dinner, but his flight in Charlotte was a mess and he didn't return to the condo until 9pm! He really could have used those extra days to relax. It has been such a fun few days at the beach, although we missed hanging out with CK.

First dip in the ocean on Monday late afternoon!