The Cure for the Common Cold

As I mentioned the other day, I discovered the cure for the common cold on a beach in Destin, Florida, last week.  We spent most of our spring break there, and it was sooooo nice to get away from the Midwestern chill for a few days.  

Here are some of the pics from our trip.  I didn't take along my shiny, new camera for this trip, because I was a little nervous about sand and water.  Instead, Bionic Man brought along his trusty (NOT!  SO NOT!) waterproof camera.  You know how I feel about that camera.  I let Bionic Man take most of the pictures, this time, because of my grudge with his camera.  So, enjoy these pics in all of their blue-date-in-the-corner glory.  And remember, Bionic Man mostly takes pictures of feats of engineering and nature, so any humans included are lucky to be there.

Speaking of feats of engineering, our first stop was at the U.S. Space and Rocket Center in Huntsville, Alabama.

Not only did we get to see a lot of rockets, we all got to enjoy quite a few hands-on activities, including simulators like the astronauts train with.  This is the home of Space Camp, after all.

(Note the tiny group of humans standing next to this feat of engineering, below.  That would be me and my children.  We're almost covered by the big blue date, but we're there!)

The next day, we picked up our rented RV (more about that later) and spent our first day in Florida at Rocky Bayou State Park, in Niceville, Florida.

Rocky Bayou isn't on the beach.  It's on the Bayou.  The, uh, um, the rocky Bayou.  

We enjoyed exploring the nature trails there, and learning more about the flora and fauna in Florida.  They have some pretty cool things that we don't see in Indiana, like this deer moss.  Freaky, eh?

The next day, we drove a few minutes south into Destin, Florida.  There, we made camp at Henderson State Beach.

And what a beach it was.....

The big advantage of camping in Florida is this: instead of having a few feet of beach that you share with hundreds of other people from your high rise resort, you share a mile of beach with the residents of 50 or so campsites.  In our case, the other residents were all retirees.  We frequently had this stretch of beach all to ourselves.  It was heavenly. 

It was at the beach when the waterproof camera started being--well, a little quirky.  Quirkier than usual.  Aren't these pictures strange?  

When we came home and downloaded the pictures, we discovered our video footage was even stranger.    For some reason, it looks like my Grandpa Bradford's home movies.  You know, the ones on a reel?  It's actually pretty trendy and cool, considering how much we're all into vintage right now.  Check it out:

Seriously, guys, can someone just TELL ME THE TEMPERATURE OF THE WATER?!?!?

Our last full day in Florida, we went down to Destin's Harbor Walk

and took a boat from there out to snorkle and sea kayak at this jetty.

Thanks to the wonkiness of the waterproof camera, we didn't get any good underwater pictures.  But it was fun to see the blue crabs, jellyfish, and colorful fish swimming around in the rocks.  It was actually warmer in the water than out of it, that day.

We spent two days driving back, because the Bionic Man and I cannot handle long drives.  (We're all about seeing the sights.)  Since those days coincided with General Conference, we stopped at several LDS church buildings along our route so that we could watch the conference sessions via satellite broadcasts.  It was fun, not only to participate in the conference that way, but to meet people at the different buildings.  They were always very welcoming and friendly.

Saturday evening, as I checked the meetinghouse locator on LDS.org and planned our route for the following day, I started to cry.  There was the map of our route, with hundreds of little red dots marking LDS churches along the way.  The realization that all over the map, there were families like ours trying to follow the teachings of Jesus Christ was just overwhelming.  I absolutely know that my church doesn't have a corner on the market when it comes to good Christians.  I have met so many wonderful, good people who aren't members of my church.  But, I love that I can walk into any of the buildings represented by those little red dots, and know exactly what to expect: the same doctrines, the same teachings, the same feeling of peace, the same welcoming smiles and warm handshakes.  It doesn't matter where I go in the world, I know I'll always be able to find people who share my beliefs and values, and that is extremely comforting.

A couple of the meetinghouses that we stopped at were right next to temples, so we enjoyed seeing those.  It was fun to take pictures of our family at temples we'd never been to, before.  Temples are a big deal to us, because they remind our family that we get to be together forever.  

Whew!  Long post.  I bet you feel kinda like you got invited over for dinner and then I made you watch all the slides from my last vacation.  Sorry!