Category: Travel

We realized pretty quickly that Red Tide was going to be so unpredictable and that we would have to have back up plans besides the pool. Lots of people were wearing surgical masks or bandannas just to breathe. The island was mostly empty since it was the first week of October, but the weather was nice and most places were still open. Monday was a bad day for the beach, so we headed down to the pool to start the day. Fortunately the pool was in the middle of the buildings and so it kept the breeze off of the ocean away from our sensitive lungs.

Preparing for the day with sunscreen.

After the pool we had lunch in the condo and then told the girls that we were going to go on a sunset Dolphin watching cruise. They weren’t totally sure what that meant, but they were excited because I was excited!

In the Captains chair

The girls LOVED being on the boat and everyone screamed with delight when we saw the first dolphins swimming around the boat. It was fun to go all around the bay and even out into the ocean for a little while. Then we watched the sun go down and they took us back to the dock. It was a really fun time! We had so many amazing photos that I thought I would include the link to our flickr page for anyone who is interested.

https://flic.kr/s/aHsktK6yHw

At the beginning of October we made a trip to the beach. We decided to try South Padre Island this year and rented a place on AirBnB that worked out great. It was a condo and they also had a pool which worked out great for us because sadly when we arrived we found out that “Red Tide” was happening on the Gulf. What is Red Tide? “Harmful algal blooms, or HABs, occur when colonies of algae—simple plants that live in the sea and freshwater—grow out of control while producing toxic or harmful effects on people, fish, shellfish, marine mammals, and birds.” The toxins get in the lungs of the fish and other animals and they suffocate. They cleaned the beach each morning to get rid of the dead fish, but as the day passed more and more dead animals would float up. Then when it was really bad the toxins would float up and we would breath them in a cough and cough and cough. It was horrible. And stinky. And there is no warning for Red Tide, so we didn’t know. It was the great science lesson of the trip, but here are some photos of the times we did get out to the beach at the beginning.

Our yearly tradition on the way up to China Camp is to stop in Paul’s Valley, OK to go to the Toy & Action Figure Museum. We always get some sort of matching Super Hero shirt. This year we went a little different because these shirts from Tee Fury were so cute and Baymax is technically a super hero 🙂

It’s always fun to see how the “Adult Collectors Bedroom Diorama” has changed each year. We also spend a lot of time in the Batcave they have set up in the back to see if anything new has been added. The girls like to try on the costumes at the end and then we head somewhere in town for lunch. This year we tried Tio’s Mexican restaurant and it was so good! As always we had a great time on our little stop.

Silly faces photo request from Amelie.

Amelie was exhausted after all of the fun on our stop and slept on the way to Tulsa.

Taggie photo for this trip.

After having breakfast at the hotel we dropped the girls at the last day of China Camp. Dani, Mike and I went back to the hotel to get everything packed up and then we went out to lunch before going to the closing program. We enjoyed our alone time with Dani and I know she enjoyed all the extra attention she got from Mike and I.

Special performers were a new edition this year.

Amelie made this at camp. She traced her hands and said when she grows up she wants to be a “mom, artist and fixer.”

Nadia’s artwork 2015.

They had a great time as usual and in the car on the way home they were already talking about next year because Dani gets to go for the first time 🙂