St. George Island, Florida

We just got back from a Maurer Family Vacation to St. George Island, Florida.  My parents rented a house down there and we spent the week relaxing and playing.  Our biggest decision each day was beach or pool!

The weather was absolutely perfect the whole week we were down there.  It was hot, and sunny!  This area of Florida is called the "Forgotten Coast" because it is not very commercialized.  The beaches are quiet and natural.  I felt like we had the entire beach to ourselves.  Each day we would only see one or two other families.  The beach was perfect for Kate and Ben.  It stayed shallow forever so they could wade out and feel like the had some freedom.  This was Ben's first experience with the ocean. 

 

Our days usually started off in the pool and eventually led to the beach (then back and forth for the rest of the day).  Kate was ready to hit the pool the minute she woke up.  Luckily Papa was a good sport and the two of them had about an hour head start on the rest of us each day.  

 
Thanks to Uncle Matt and Ally, Kate's favorite beach activity was digging for little mussels.  Once she would find a hand full of them, she'd take them to the shoreline and watch them dig back under the sand.  If she ever thought they weren't digging fast enough for her liking she'd give them a little poke for help.  Kate could do this for hours!

The nature and scenery around our house was beautiful.  Kate got a kick out of the frogs that would stick to our windows in the evenings and the florescent green lizards we'd see on our way to the beach.  It was also turtle season so every morning we'd look to see if there were any new turtle nests made during the night.  There were a couple nests close to "our spot" on the beach.  But, most spectacular were the dolphins that cruised right off the coast.  There were so many of them, usually they were 3 or 4 at a time but sometimes 20 to 30!  Even though we could see them clearly from shore, almost every afternoon we paddled our rafts out to float and get a closer look at them.  Drew and I decided to rent a kayak and get a really close look at them.  What an awesome experience!!  At one point they were swimming under our kayak and surrounding us in all directions.  They'd come up and take a peek at us, less than 3 ft away.  It was awesome (and a tad bit scary)!!  It was hard to get good pictures because they were moving so quickly and our kayak was bouncing around, but I got a few.  (We didn't take the kids with us on our up-close, dolphin encounter.)

The week seemed to fly by!  We had plans to alternate cooking dinner at home and going out to eat every other night.  But, we ended up going out for dinner only once! (And it was very yummy fresh seafood!)  No one wanted to take a break from the beach or pool long enough to get cleaned up to go out.  We'd stay in the water till dusk, eat dinner and usually end the evening with a Wii bowling or tennis competition.  It was a perfect week!