Marco Island - Day 7 part 2

Midday brought showers and thunderstorms... not the way we wanted to spend our last full day.


BUT... it did stop long enough to take the kids down for the Ice Cream Social poolside.
(Yes... they made them themselves... everything but the kitchen sink!)






AND... we were once again treated to a lovely sunset.




God knows that I learn by repetition, and the fact that this out-of-a-storm-comes-blessings happened twice this week - wasn't lost on me.

I know everything will work out beautifully for me and my babies... just might have a nasty storm first.

Marco Island - Day 7

Our last full day... *sigh
I took a chance and filmed some video and it worked!

But first... pictures from the balcony.

OMG! Is it? It MUST be! An ICEBERG!!

HA!

The view straight out...


to the left...


to the right...


down by the pool...


It's been a grand morning so far... I can only imagine that the rest of the day will follow suit.





What a wonderful vacation... and the timing couldn't have been better for me. (Thanks Papa and Diana!)
But in a way I am ready to get back home.

Marco Island - Day 6

More of the same today...
I have completely unwound and am officially relaxed. I didn't even break out the camera today so I will put up more pics from yesterday/last evening.







Savannah and I headed down to the pool early. Edan decided that the construction noise was too much for her so she headed off on a long walk down the beach in the opposite direction and Eric and his shadow, Austin, went for a dip in the ocean. By the time they came back up to the pool, the resort had decided to close it for a couple of hours... too much chlorine. (Good thing my dad wasn't here... heads would be rolling!)

So our siesta started a bit earlier... no biggie. But by 2:30 the pool had re-opened and the resort served margaritas poolside as a peace offering. Works for me!
It's odd drinking in the middle of the day, and they hit the spot... but I didn't have enough to pass out in a lawn chair. *wink

Marco Island - Day 5

Our routine will change today... dammit!
The one thing that is not controllable... not even by my father.

Rain.

It didn't stop us from starting the day as usual.
breakfast - pool - lunch - siesta... but not because we needed to get out of the sun and heat... but because the clouds decided to do more than just cover up the sun. The rain came and stayed most of the day.
Bummer.

One thing we did look forward to was my brother and his girlfriend joining us. They arrived @ 2:30. My dad and Diana decided to stay for dinner before heading home and back to the real world. They packed up and left around 7:30pm and the rest of us decided to go out to the beach and walk off our dinner.

Thank God we did... or we would have missed an incredible sight!

Right at 8pm the clouds cleared just on the horizon and we saw that we would actually be getting a sunset! And what a stunning one it was!



BUT then we turned around to see another amazing display... the brightest and fullest rainbow I have ever seen. Unfortunately we could back up far enough to get the entire thing in one shot.





A wonderfully colourful ending to a day that started out grey and gloomy.

Marco Island - Day 4

Every morning at 8am sharp... it starts... the demolition... banging... concrete chunks crashing... etc. The old buildings next to the condos where we are staying are coming down. Marriot Timeshare has purchased the land and will be building new condos there starting at... are you sitting down? $20,000 for a week. One week a year! And that doesn't even include maintainence fees! Unbelievable.
This was the sight this morning...


Because I haven't quoted Duran lyrics in, like... forever! (And because they are totally stuck in my head now...)
Where's the real life in your illusion?
On the dark of power in confusion.
Do the dance. Do the demolition.
Don't lose the chance to hear 'cause you don't listen.

I feel better now.

So...

Our routine this week has become quite repetitive...

breakfast - pool - lunch - siesta - beach - dinner - sunset - bed

Now if I could just get paid to do this daily...

Marco Island - Day 3

I've developed this love/hate relationship with my camera.

I'm hoping it's just the new disks I purchased for them, but everytime I film any video it seems to corrupt the disk. (And that means I lost a great pic of Savannah in the pool this morning and one of Austin on the balcony.)

Thankfully I brought an extra disk so that I could document this evening's sunset.

A conversation between me and my dad...

... this morning whilst lounging at the pool.


Me: Looks like it's going to be a great day! (sips coffee)

Dad: Yeah.... wonder what the poor people are doing today.

Me: (coughs and laughs at the same time)

Dad: Eh... screw 'em! (sips orange juice)

Marco Island - Day 2

Sunday, June 3rd

Woke up this morning, had coffee and breakfast and wandered down to the beach and later the pool.




It's siesta time now... but we'll head back down to have another swim before dinner.

Marco Island - Day 1

Saturday, June 2. Day 1 of a much needed vacation.

We finally arrived last night at 6pm (after a 3 hour drive south from Tampa) to my dad and his wife, Diana, waiting - not so patiently so that we could go out to dinner.

The trip was not without incident though. I had just crossed the bridge onto the island and was driving (the speed limit thankfully!) behind an 18-wheeler and as he went through an intersection I looked up and saw that the signal was red.
I had just run a red light... and OF COURSE there was one of Marco Island's finest at the very intersection to see the whole thing.
So he pulled me over.



The good news is that he only gave me a warning, which means no fines or court dates. (And, no, I didn't flirt with him to get out of it either.)

We arrive, unpack the car, and head out to dinner at a pizza place my dad and Diana had discovered a couple of years ago. 'Best Pizza Ever' according to Diana and is was really good.

Got back to the condo in time to walk along the beach for the sunset and some choice shell hunting.


I can feel myself already unwinding... I'm sure the 3 glasses of wine are helping too. *wink