ForeverDance
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Jan 24, 2007
- Messages
- 636
Beach Fun
August 24, 2015 – Part 2
On our way out to the beach we stopped at the front desk to retrieve our complimentary beach towels.
Such a nice feature.
In no time we were back at the beach and scoping out a spot to put our stuff down.
We had to walk all the way around an area that had been “roped” off and had rows of beach umbrellas. If you wanted you could pay a small fortune for the privilege of sitting under one of those umbrellas.
We didn’t have any money with us so we had to settle with grabbing a prime spot in front of that area.
We threw our stuff down and made our way toward the water.
PrincessK was nervous.
You see PrincessK is afraid of water. Or more accurately she is afraid of water touching her head.
She absolutely loves playing in the water. She’ll spend hours playing in the tub. During the summer she asked almost daily if she could have a bucket of water to play with. And I am constantly finding her playing in the bathroom sink.
But, in none of those situations, does the water ever come near her head.
Because water near your head will obviously kill you
Washing her hair is not fun.
So there we were standing in ankle deep water and PrincessK was torn.
She desperately wanted to go play in the ocean but what if the waves caused water to splash up onto her head?!?
We gently coaxed her deeper.
As each wave approached she would jump into Grumpy’s arms and cling to him as if her life depended on it.
Slowly, between breaks in the waves, we moved further out.
Eventually we got her to water up to her waist and through some kind of magic Grumpy managed to convince her to jump the next wave on her own… as long has he held on to her.
They waited and watched.
And then it came.
PrincessK had a death grip on Grumpy’s arms but when the wave finally past it was clear that she enjoyed it.
We continued to play in the water for about 40 minutes and PrincessK had a blast. We jumped and splashed in the waves and then went into deeper water and she jumped back and forth between Grumpy and I.
Every time water ended up on her head she would freak out a little but she recovered quickly.
Eventually we decided it was time for a break from the water so we headed to shore.
Grumpy relaxed on the beach while PrincessK and I played in the sand.
PrincessK wanted to build sand castles but she didn’t want to do it up on the beach, she wanted to be right at the water line. As you can imagine this made things interesting. She would start building and then a wave would come up the beach and knock it back down. When I suggested we move further up the beach she shook her head.
“We can figure this out mommy”.
She started digging various holes in front of the area where she wanted to build. Then she started building up a sand barrier. Each time a wave would roll up she would watch intently and then make adjustments to her castle protection system.
She never did manage to prevent it from being washed away but I was very impressed watching her think through the problem.
It was right about this time that something frightening happened.
We were just sitting there on the beach playing in the sand and this “thing” came crawling out of the ocean.
It was huge.
Like some great swamp creature had found its way to the ocean!!!
Grumpy ran over and grabbed a picture.
Frightening wasn’t it?!
PrincessK accidentally dropped some mud on my leg while trying to build one of her protection towers. I reacted in a way that made her laugh… and it progressed as it usually does with our family.
Since I was quite muddy and needed to get rinsed off we headed back into the water.
I tried to get some pictures while we were swimming but the sun was so bright that it made the display appear black so I gave up and just enjoyed the swim.
A little while later Grumpy and I decided that we needed to get out of the sun and heat for a while so we packed up and made our way back to the room.
We had purchased snack food earlier so we decided to forgo real lunch for some snacks.
Grumpy and PrincessK sat down with some turkey bites and I grabbed my chips.
What?
It’s vacation!
One of my favourite things to do when travelling to another country is to see what flavours of chips they have. When we went to visit my mother in law in England we found Roast Beef & Yorskshire Pudding and Prawn Cocktail. The Roast Beef & Yorkshire Pudding was quite good but I did not enjoy the Prawn Cocktail.
When we were at the grocery store earlier that morning I made my way over to the chip aisle. The U.S. isn’t really what I would call a “foreign” country to Canadians so I wasn’t really expecting to find much. As predicted I saw many familiar flavours like Barbecue and Sour Cream & Onion. I had almost given up finding something unique when I came across a flavour I had never seen in chip form, but something I love. I grabbed two bags. One for me to eat and one to bring back for my dad (because he also loves this flavour).
So what was it?
Wasabi!!!
My father and I share a love of all things wasabi flavoured. Wasabi covered peas, peanuts, almonds, mashed potatoes, you name it. I’ve even tried Wasabi flavoured KitKat brought back from my cousin who lives and teaches in China.
I loved it all.
Yep even the chocolate.
I was very excited to try these chips. Technically they were Wasabi Ginger, but either way they did not disappoint. There were deliciously Wasabi flavoured as advertised.
I was eating my chips and exclaiming to Grumpy about how delicious they were when PrincessK jumped in.
“Can I try one?”
“They’re spicy sweetie”.
“Please?”
It seemed like such a waste of a perfectly delicious chip. PrincessK hates anything even remotely spicy. She complains that the pepperoni on pizza is too spicy.
I knew what the result would be, but I didn’t want to discourage her from trying new things. So I begrudgingly scarified a delicious wasabi chip to the hater of all things spicy.
The result was worse than I could have imagined.
She loved them!
And because chips are full of fat, salt, and calories I let her have the bag.
She didn’t eat them all but she made quite a dent.
While we were eating our snacks I pulled out the camera so I could look over the pictures we had taken.
I turned it on… the screen was black.
Hmm.
I turned it off and on again… the screen was black.
I pressed some buttons… the screen stayed black.
Oh no.
I opened the flap where the battery and memory card goes… there were water droplets inside.
Ugh.
“Grumpy, I think our camera is broken. Somehow it got water inside.”
He took it and looked it over.
“Huh. Maybe you can dry it out.”
I took it back and removed the memory card and battery and carefully dried the little bit of water from them. Then I tried my best to dry out the inside of the camera.
“I think it must not be waterproof anymore.”
“Well it’s pretty old, it doesn’t really owe us anything.”
Seriously? All our pictures might be gone and all he can say is “it doesn’t owe us anything”!
It was like we had stepped into some kind of crazy alternate universe.
I‘m always the calm one. If something happens and there is nothing we can do about it then I don’t usually get bent out of shape. It is what it is.
Grumpy on the other hand gets, well, grumpy.
Except on this day.
On this day I couldn’t help myself.
We’d had some pretty cool experiences already and I was devastated at the thought that we might have lost all those pictures. Sure we still had the memories, but I wanted pictures to look back on.
“It is what it is.”
Seriously?!
Did he just use my own line on me!?!
I left the camera laying with all the flaps open in the hopes that it would help to dry it out.
After our exciting morning we were all feeling a little tired out so we decided to take a nap.
PrincessK was not pleased but the promise of another trip to the beach was just the encouragement she needed. She hopped into bed and quickly fell asleep.
We slept a couple of hours before waking up around 3pm.
We all woke up hungry.
We decided to check out the hotel restaurant.
The food was fine. I had a taco salad in an edible bowl, Grumpy had a burger, and PrincessK had chicken strips. No one complained about their food but no one had anything good to say about it either.
As I said, it was fine.
The real reason we decided to check out the restaurant (besides the convenient location) was for the giant fish tank.
PrincessK enjoyed being able to see the fish swimming around. She especially enjoyed the sharks though she was quite concerned that they would eat the other fish.
After dinner we got back into our suits.
Still wet.
Before we went I put more sunscreen on PrincessK just to be sure her sensitive skin would not burn. I knew I’d be okay because on all our previous trips to Disney I’ve put sunscreen on in the morning and then not needed to reapply in the afternoon but I wasn’t taking any chances on her.
We had no trouble getting PrincessK into the water this time.
She didn’t hesitate at all, just ran right in.
We played in the waves which were even bigger than they were that morning.
We noted the yellow flag when we got to the beach so we were careful to keep a hold on PrincessK and stay in water that didn’t go much deeper than our waist.
We had a great time.
After a while I noticed that the undertow had gotten really strong. I mentioned it to Grumpy who shrugged and said he hadn’t really noticed. Given he’s 8 inches taller and about twice my weight I wasn’t all that surprised. I asked him to take PrincessK from me since it wasn’t bothering him. I’m a strong swimmer and I wasn’t worried for myself but I didn’t want to risk being pulled over with her in my arms.
A few minutes later the flag on the beach changed to red.
We moved into shallower water just to be safe and played a while longer before deciding that it was time to head back.
Back in the room I got PrincessK all washed off before hopping in the shower myself.
Once in the shower I quickly realized I had made a mistake earlier.
The hot water felt like tiny needles stabbing my skin.
After my shower, a quick glance in the mirror confirmed my suspicions.
I was burnt!
My back and chest was already bright red.
I knew I was going to be in trouble for the rest of the trip if I didn’t do something.
I left Grumpy and PrincessK in the hotel room and made my way to the grocery store across the street to find some kind of Vitamin E or After Sun lotion.
I found that and grabbed some more Wasabi chips since I was there anyway
Back in the room I applied the lotion very liberally.
After breathing treatments and a snack (and more lotion for me) we got PrincessK into bed.
She fell asleep almost immediately.
Of course she had no idea that something very exciting was going to be happening the next day.
Grumpy and I were practically vibrating with excitement.
I went about organizing and packing up for the next day.
I wrapped our suits in towels and pressed as much water out as possible before hanging them on the shower rod. That way they would be dry by morning. Then I rinsed PrincessK’s beach shoes out and put them on the edge of the tub so I wouldn’t forget them.
Grumpy declared that he was going to bed so he could be well rested for the big day.
It was 8:45pm.
I was a little jealous but I just could not go to bed without having everything ready.
I finished up getting things packed and organized for the next day.
It only took me about half an hour and then I too jumped into bed and set the alarm for 6 am.
I closed my eyes and hoped for sleep but it was very difficult.
I was just too excited.
Despite the bumpy start, the trip had already been amazing.
We’d “rescued” a baby sea turtle and spent hours playing in the waves.
These were memories that I knew I’d cherish and I was so glad we decided to spend some time there.
The next day we would be heading to Disney and I couldn’t wait to see how PrincessK would react.
Up Next: You Said a Bigger Number
August 24, 2015 – Part 2
On our way out to the beach we stopped at the front desk to retrieve our complimentary beach towels.
Such a nice feature.
In no time we were back at the beach and scoping out a spot to put our stuff down.
We had to walk all the way around an area that had been “roped” off and had rows of beach umbrellas. If you wanted you could pay a small fortune for the privilege of sitting under one of those umbrellas.
We didn’t have any money with us so we had to settle with grabbing a prime spot in front of that area.
We threw our stuff down and made our way toward the water.
PrincessK was nervous.
You see PrincessK is afraid of water. Or more accurately she is afraid of water touching her head.
She absolutely loves playing in the water. She’ll spend hours playing in the tub. During the summer she asked almost daily if she could have a bucket of water to play with. And I am constantly finding her playing in the bathroom sink.
But, in none of those situations, does the water ever come near her head.
Because water near your head will obviously kill you
Washing her hair is not fun.
So there we were standing in ankle deep water and PrincessK was torn.
She desperately wanted to go play in the ocean but what if the waves caused water to splash up onto her head?!?
We gently coaxed her deeper.
As each wave approached she would jump into Grumpy’s arms and cling to him as if her life depended on it.
Slowly, between breaks in the waves, we moved further out.
Eventually we got her to water up to her waist and through some kind of magic Grumpy managed to convince her to jump the next wave on her own… as long has he held on to her.
They waited and watched.
And then it came.
PrincessK had a death grip on Grumpy’s arms but when the wave finally past it was clear that she enjoyed it.
We continued to play in the water for about 40 minutes and PrincessK had a blast. We jumped and splashed in the waves and then went into deeper water and she jumped back and forth between Grumpy and I.
Every time water ended up on her head she would freak out a little but she recovered quickly.
Eventually we decided it was time for a break from the water so we headed to shore.
Grumpy relaxed on the beach while PrincessK and I played in the sand.
PrincessK wanted to build sand castles but she didn’t want to do it up on the beach, she wanted to be right at the water line. As you can imagine this made things interesting. She would start building and then a wave would come up the beach and knock it back down. When I suggested we move further up the beach she shook her head.
“We can figure this out mommy”.
She started digging various holes in front of the area where she wanted to build. Then she started building up a sand barrier. Each time a wave would roll up she would watch intently and then make adjustments to her castle protection system.
She never did manage to prevent it from being washed away but I was very impressed watching her think through the problem.
It was right about this time that something frightening happened.
We were just sitting there on the beach playing in the sand and this “thing” came crawling out of the ocean.
It was huge.
Like some great swamp creature had found its way to the ocean!!!
Grumpy ran over and grabbed a picture.
Frightening wasn’t it?!
PrincessK accidentally dropped some mud on my leg while trying to build one of her protection towers. I reacted in a way that made her laugh… and it progressed as it usually does with our family.
Since I was quite muddy and needed to get rinsed off we headed back into the water.
I tried to get some pictures while we were swimming but the sun was so bright that it made the display appear black so I gave up and just enjoyed the swim.
A little while later Grumpy and I decided that we needed to get out of the sun and heat for a while so we packed up and made our way back to the room.
We had purchased snack food earlier so we decided to forgo real lunch for some snacks.
Grumpy and PrincessK sat down with some turkey bites and I grabbed my chips.
What?
It’s vacation!
One of my favourite things to do when travelling to another country is to see what flavours of chips they have. When we went to visit my mother in law in England we found Roast Beef & Yorskshire Pudding and Prawn Cocktail. The Roast Beef & Yorkshire Pudding was quite good but I did not enjoy the Prawn Cocktail.
When we were at the grocery store earlier that morning I made my way over to the chip aisle. The U.S. isn’t really what I would call a “foreign” country to Canadians so I wasn’t really expecting to find much. As predicted I saw many familiar flavours like Barbecue and Sour Cream & Onion. I had almost given up finding something unique when I came across a flavour I had never seen in chip form, but something I love. I grabbed two bags. One for me to eat and one to bring back for my dad (because he also loves this flavour).
So what was it?
Wasabi!!!
My father and I share a love of all things wasabi flavoured. Wasabi covered peas, peanuts, almonds, mashed potatoes, you name it. I’ve even tried Wasabi flavoured KitKat brought back from my cousin who lives and teaches in China.
I loved it all.
Yep even the chocolate.
I was very excited to try these chips. Technically they were Wasabi Ginger, but either way they did not disappoint. There were deliciously Wasabi flavoured as advertised.
I was eating my chips and exclaiming to Grumpy about how delicious they were when PrincessK jumped in.
“Can I try one?”
“They’re spicy sweetie”.
“Please?”
It seemed like such a waste of a perfectly delicious chip. PrincessK hates anything even remotely spicy. She complains that the pepperoni on pizza is too spicy.
I knew what the result would be, but I didn’t want to discourage her from trying new things. So I begrudgingly scarified a delicious wasabi chip to the hater of all things spicy.
The result was worse than I could have imagined.
She loved them!
And because chips are full of fat, salt, and calories I let her have the bag.
She didn’t eat them all but she made quite a dent.
While we were eating our snacks I pulled out the camera so I could look over the pictures we had taken.
I turned it on… the screen was black.
Hmm.
I turned it off and on again… the screen was black.
I pressed some buttons… the screen stayed black.
Oh no.
I opened the flap where the battery and memory card goes… there were water droplets inside.
Ugh.
“Grumpy, I think our camera is broken. Somehow it got water inside.”
He took it and looked it over.
“Huh. Maybe you can dry it out.”
I took it back and removed the memory card and battery and carefully dried the little bit of water from them. Then I tried my best to dry out the inside of the camera.
“I think it must not be waterproof anymore.”
“Well it’s pretty old, it doesn’t really owe us anything.”
Seriously? All our pictures might be gone and all he can say is “it doesn’t owe us anything”!
It was like we had stepped into some kind of crazy alternate universe.
I‘m always the calm one. If something happens and there is nothing we can do about it then I don’t usually get bent out of shape. It is what it is.
Grumpy on the other hand gets, well, grumpy.
Except on this day.
On this day I couldn’t help myself.
We’d had some pretty cool experiences already and I was devastated at the thought that we might have lost all those pictures. Sure we still had the memories, but I wanted pictures to look back on.
“It is what it is.”
Seriously?!
Did he just use my own line on me!?!
I left the camera laying with all the flaps open in the hopes that it would help to dry it out.
After our exciting morning we were all feeling a little tired out so we decided to take a nap.
PrincessK was not pleased but the promise of another trip to the beach was just the encouragement she needed. She hopped into bed and quickly fell asleep.
We slept a couple of hours before waking up around 3pm.
We all woke up hungry.
We decided to check out the hotel restaurant.
The food was fine. I had a taco salad in an edible bowl, Grumpy had a burger, and PrincessK had chicken strips. No one complained about their food but no one had anything good to say about it either.
As I said, it was fine.
The real reason we decided to check out the restaurant (besides the convenient location) was for the giant fish tank.
PrincessK enjoyed being able to see the fish swimming around. She especially enjoyed the sharks though she was quite concerned that they would eat the other fish.
After dinner we got back into our suits.
Still wet.Before we went I put more sunscreen on PrincessK just to be sure her sensitive skin would not burn. I knew I’d be okay because on all our previous trips to Disney I’ve put sunscreen on in the morning and then not needed to reapply in the afternoon but I wasn’t taking any chances on her.
We had no trouble getting PrincessK into the water this time.
She didn’t hesitate at all, just ran right in.
We played in the waves which were even bigger than they were that morning.
We noted the yellow flag when we got to the beach so we were careful to keep a hold on PrincessK and stay in water that didn’t go much deeper than our waist.
We had a great time.
After a while I noticed that the undertow had gotten really strong. I mentioned it to Grumpy who shrugged and said he hadn’t really noticed. Given he’s 8 inches taller and about twice my weight I wasn’t all that surprised. I asked him to take PrincessK from me since it wasn’t bothering him. I’m a strong swimmer and I wasn’t worried for myself but I didn’t want to risk being pulled over with her in my arms.
A few minutes later the flag on the beach changed to red.
We moved into shallower water just to be safe and played a while longer before deciding that it was time to head back.
Back in the room I got PrincessK all washed off before hopping in the shower myself.
Once in the shower I quickly realized I had made a mistake earlier.
The hot water felt like tiny needles stabbing my skin.
After my shower, a quick glance in the mirror confirmed my suspicions.
I was burnt!
My back and chest was already bright red.
I knew I was going to be in trouble for the rest of the trip if I didn’t do something.
I left Grumpy and PrincessK in the hotel room and made my way to the grocery store across the street to find some kind of Vitamin E or After Sun lotion.
I found that and grabbed some more Wasabi chips since I was there anyway
Back in the room I applied the lotion very liberally.
After breathing treatments and a snack (and more lotion for me) we got PrincessK into bed.
She fell asleep almost immediately.
Of course she had no idea that something very exciting was going to be happening the next day.
Grumpy and I were practically vibrating with excitement.
I went about organizing and packing up for the next day.
I wrapped our suits in towels and pressed as much water out as possible before hanging them on the shower rod. That way they would be dry by morning. Then I rinsed PrincessK’s beach shoes out and put them on the edge of the tub so I wouldn’t forget them.
Grumpy declared that he was going to bed so he could be well rested for the big day.
It was 8:45pm.
I was a little jealous but I just could not go to bed without having everything ready.
I finished up getting things packed and organized for the next day.
It only took me about half an hour and then I too jumped into bed and set the alarm for 6 am.
I closed my eyes and hoped for sleep but it was very difficult.
I was just too excited.
Despite the bumpy start, the trip had already been amazing.
We’d “rescued” a baby sea turtle and spent hours playing in the waves.
These were memories that I knew I’d cherish and I was so glad we decided to spend some time there.
The next day we would be heading to Disney and I couldn’t wait to see how PrincessK would react.
Up Next: You Said a Bigger Number
Last edited:
Sending you and PrincessK some healthy vibes to get rid of all those germs her little germ factory friends are sharing with her!
Thanks for joining in and thanks for all the pixie dust.
You totally got me there!
