Sebastian Inlet

What an amazing trip we had.

So nice to get away and enjoy being a family.

It was wonderful to relax and lounge around with nothing to do. We played at the beach, cooked hot dogs and smores over a campfire. We slept together in our tent. Troy, me, and Tony on a big blow up mattress. Sophi slept next to me on her pink princess airbed. We had a fan in the tent and it was nice to snuggle together. Although with Troy's constant wiggling and Sophi's incessant talking I think one night was all I can handle of that.

We went on a nature trail; although we didn't go far, Sophi was nervous that we would get lost, so was I. It was a winding trail that went far into the mangrove trees. There was a one mile walk trail and a 15 mile bike trail, they kept intertwining and we were afraid that if we took the wrong trail we would be walking 15 miles in the woods with a four year old and a two year old, so we opted to go about a half mile in and then turn around; so we can still say we did the one mile walk.

There was an awesome area of beach where the ocean and the Indian River meet. It was a horseshoe shaped beach with sand on one side and rocks on the other. The kids could walk throughout as it was only knee high through most of it. At the deepest part it was waist high and during an early morning swim we saw a big manatee had come to join us for a swim. He was a social fellow and swam right near us while we walked through the water. Troy was swimming out with us and didn't realize that there was a manatee, or even what a manatee was for that matter. He was running out to me with his brown curls bouncing on his shoulders. Then about six inches from his face the manatee surfaced and two little nostrils came up right by Troy's face. His joyful little face turned to sheer terror and he screamed "Gator!" He jumped into my arms then fled for the shoreline. He ran up to the shore, onto the grass, past the picnic tables... finally stopping before he reached the parking area. He refused to go back in the water. I tried to tell him it was just a manatee and that they wouldn't hurt you. He was less than interested in anything I had to say and was happy to walk in ankle deep water where he was "safe".

We walked along the rocky shoreline. Tony found a crab for the kids to look at. There were lots of people fishing. We touched all kind of sea grass and slimmy rocks. Sophi was less interested in the slimmy rocks and more interested in the beautiful flowers. She must have picked me about ten flowers and had me put them in my hair or hers. I told her we were camping princesses. She told me I was the queen. I liked that.

After we packed up camp to head home we went two miles and found a cute little museum with an observation deck overlooking the beach. Apparently, there was a Spanish ship wreck off the coast in the 1700s and to this day there are still treasures waiting to be discovered. The museum was all about this ship wreck and the lost treasure.

We got home about 5pm and it was off to work for me... I got home first thing this morning and fell into the bed. So much needed sleep was in order.

It was an awesome two day adventure.