October "Break"

One of the things we've gotten used to over the past six years overseas is an October break.  In most other parts of the world, you get a week off in October.  When you think about it, it makes sense.  A week off in October, balances a week off in April.  And let's face it, when is a little break NOT a good idea.  Obviously, schools in the U.S. don't offer a weeklong break, but since school is online, you can be "in school" anywhere with internet.  

We were supposed to hang out with the Goerss grandparents for April break, but that all got cancelled because of the pandemic, so we owed them a visit, and, much as we like our house, we were all getting kind of sick of it, so we made a last minute decision to go to Florida for a week.  We didn't want to fly, and I didn't want to stop anywhere overnight, so we made the ambitious decision to try and drive it in a day.  Google said the drive would take 14 hours.  I decided that meant we should start at 4am.  The kids are such good travelers that shuffling them out of their beds and into the backseat of the car at that hour wasn't a big deal, and we were on the road by 4:04.

If you're ever planning to drive from Virginia to Florida, I highly recommend starting at 4am.  There was NO ONE on the road.  The rest of my family slept peacefully while I drove us through Virginia.  The sun started to come up around North Carolina, and the family slowly started to wake up too.  One state down!  We did a bathroom/breakfast stop with masks on and lots of hand sanitizer, and then got back in the car.  Anyone who has driven through North Carolina on 95 has seen the Pedro's South of the Border signs.  While there are definitely some things wrong with them, they did provide some entertainment in addition to the license plate hunting.  We also started seeing more Jesus and Donald Trump themed billboards.

We were excited to see the big sombrero that marked our entry to South Carolina, but we decided not to stop.  We had gotten an early lunch at McDonald's, which is a special roadtrip treat for the kids, and the girls were playing with their new Happy Meal toys already.  We got through South Carolina and Georgia smoothly, but we needed gas by the time we got to Florida.  Elena was excited because we were in Florida, but we kept reminding her how LONG Florida is.  Still, we managed to make it to our destination in time for a yummy dinner.  Road trip goal accomplished!

After a good night's sleep, we were ready to enjoy the spoils of grandparents and Florida.  The girls spent most of the day in the pool, and I was not allowed to cook or clean anything.

We ate all our meals outside, and the girls made up games like Flamingo School in the pool.

Monday was an asynchronous day, so we got our school work out of the way in the morning, and then went to the Science Center for the afternoon.  I was a bit nervous about going anywhere, but I figured the Science Center would be taking proper precautions, and I was reassured by the T-rex at the entrance.

Sure enough, there were arrows on the ground, hand sanitizer stations everywhere, and employees regularly spraying down anything kids might touch.  I allowed myself to relax and enjoy.

It was a great outing, and perfect for Vivian who was studying ecosystems and invasive species in her science class.

On Tuesday, the girls did have to do some actual online school, but Vivian had a beautiful view out her bedroom window, and Elena had mango to keep her strength up, so they did just fine.

On Wednesday, we got a nice surprise.  Arlington County had an internet outage, so all classes were cancelled for the day! We decided that called for a field trip to the Loggerhead Marinelife Center.  It was a bit rainy, but we brought umbrellas and a love of turtles.

It was really interesting to learn about the turtles and how they had gotten there.  Elena of course was in love with the baby turtles, but she also appreciated the bigger ones.

On Thursday, Vivian had regular classes, but Elena was off for conferences.  That meant Elena went right into the pool, and Vivian was sad about not being in the pool.  Elena's teacher said she needed to practice Spanish more, maybe by watching things in Spanish, so we fished her out of the pool and put on The Jungle Book in Spanish.  Parenting :-)

One of the main things we wanted to do that we hadn't done up until that point was go to the beach.  It had been raining off and on all week, which was fine for the pool, but not great for the beach.  Jeff's dad is a meteorologist, so he took at is a personal challenge to find us a beach without rain.  We got in the car a bit skeptically, since it was pouring where we were.  We brought umbrellas and everything, but what do you know, it wasn't raining at the beach he took us to!

Even though it wasn't raining where we were, we could see the rain coming for us, so we didn't stay long.  Still, it was wonderful to see, hear, and smell the waves.

Friday was our final day, neither girl had classes, just a quick conference for Viv, and the sun finally came out.  We decided this called for a two beach celebration.  We packed up snacks and beach gear and headed to a protected inlet where the girls could enjoy the sand.  There were a few other families there, but everyone was careful to spread out, and the girls loved it.

But even though Vivian was having fun, she was missing her waves, so after a while, we went to beach number 2, and the waves did not disappoint.

It was a great way to end our Florida week.  When we got back to the house, the girls got back in the pool, looked up and saw what they thought was a rainbow.  We called in our resident meteorologist and he told us it was actually a glory. I tried to get the full circle in the picture, but this is the best I could do.

The next morning, we got on the road again around 4am and made the day long drive back.  Even though the driving was tough, we are so glad we did it.  It was a wonderful week with family and a great change of scene for all of us.