Key Largo

After a couple years off from our sunny holiday trips, we were glad to get back to the beach.   Instead of Mexico, we decided to try the Florida Keys this year.  My understanding is that Key Largo is most popular for scuba diving, but in the 70s there were several man-made beaches created to attract more sand and sun vacationers.  Our hotel had one of these private beaches and it was perfect for Oliver.  He was able to play in the ocean and enjoy the sand.  Plus, we could walk down to the beach right from our hotel room, and Oliver loved seeing the "pink" sunset and sunrises from our room.  We had two cool and windy days and the other two days were sunny and good beach weather.   The rooms were nothing fancy and the hotel restaurant was okay, but the short flight, easy access, and private beach made this the perfect holiday get-away for us.

On the coolest day, we made our own beach with some sand and rocks in the room, did crafts, bundled up and headed to the park, and went for pizza.  There is not much in the way of shopping in Key Largo, so I will confess that before the park, we stopped by the main shopping center (Kmart) to pick up a hot pink fleece and socks for me, a hot wheels bulldozer for Oliver, diet coke for Joe, and craft supplies.  At the park, we played in the sand, explored the grass, pushed the stroller, and rode the swing.  We could see the moon.  While swinging, I asked if he was going high, and he responded "high, moon" and pointed to the moon.  He then started talking about airplanes, astronauts and rockets....

Oliver making the best of a cool windy day in our hotel room.

Happy to be outside. 

Drawing, stickers, painting, glue and scissors.

 As for the sunny days, it was all about the ocean and beach!  His fingers were constantly pointing and he wanted to tell us about everything he was seeing.  

Water was cold, but he jumped right in.

He was more into destroying sand castles than building them.

The dump truck was his constant companion.

"Mommy, go."

His favorite thing to ask Mommy to draw: "draw, bus, please!"

We saw boats, jet skis, parasailers, seagulls (ack), seaweed, rocks, sand, etc.

We spent the morning of our last day at the beach before heading back to Miami for the aquarium and our late flight back home.  He played so hard that he fell asleep on the beach chair while eating his lunch, we carried him back to the hotel (soaked and sandy).  We took off his wet clothes and wrapped him in towels and he did not wake up.  He finally woke over an hour later in time to take a quick bath and check out of the hotel.

 Like all good vacations, it went by too fast.  But, I loved every minute of my holiday with my two favorite boys.