Spring Break

While I am working on my book report for In Our Image (it really does take me this long to really get my head together about this stuff), my family and I are on our way home from a much needed spring vacation. We were at Ft. Meyers, Florida for a long weekend.  Even though I'd love to get more stamps on my passport, we choose to stay in the country because there was a direct flight from Philadelphia to Fort Meyers, which is about 2 hours long (ideal for our 3 year old). Rather than go on an all-inclusive resort we rented a condo right by the beach so our little man had his own room and we had our own kitchen. We followed our usual bedtime routine except for reading books (we forgot to bring books). The airport at Ft. Meyers was about a half hour from our rental. Since it was a beach vacation we were able to pack light. We checked a small suit case and medium sized duffel bag. We each had a backpack so we were relatively hands free.

Our kid’s cares harness  interested the family behind us, who said that eventually their little ones would require a plane ticket and they did not want to bring a car seat with them on the plane. It also interested some of the flight crew that recognized it but saw it rarely. This device turns a regular air plane seat belt into a 5 point harness for the smallest traveler. It also packs down into a nifty little nylon sack so you really aren’t lugging a giant car seat around. We rented our car seat with the car rental.

Our backpacks contained sandwiches and snacks from our groceries during our stay. My Sherpani super bag had my laptop, items I would normally put in my purse and a change of clothes for my little guy.  

My son is almost potty trained so we packed his toilet seat, covered in a plastic bag in our suite case. He wore pull-ups during the trip and he and my hubs took trips to the men’s room when needed.

Our trip was just awesome being so close to the beach. We didn’t need to carry a ton of stuff from “home” to the actual water. We slathered sun block at home and padded down to the water with a plastic bag that contained our Nalgene water bottles, towel and of course our key. Most of the time, I sat next to a hole, digging up sand and shells. I made sand castles around the hole so my guy could eventually smash them with his boundless energy.  Funny, we didn’t even dig the hole, which looked like a foot print except both my toddler and I could fit inside it. Also I should mention that being on the gulf coast; the water was very calm and ideal for our little guy. He could walk around in the water, at bath water temps and not get pummeled by waves.

I really liked how I felt on this trip. I had not a care in the world and it seemed like we were living off of very little. We were each living out of one drawer, we had only the food we needed for the few days and only had one or two toys.  We also didn’t drive very much since the main strip was about a half mile from the condo. I loved that we were on our own schedule and changed it according to what our little guy was up for doing. I also loved that at the end of the trip, I looked more like a real Pacific Islander.

view from our screened in balcony