I swear it's been ages since the last time I had a day to myself. Which clearly isn't true, since I just got back from a luxurious beach vacation (the link goes to Corrine's blog, where she has posted a gorgeous pic of Egmont Key). But it has been a while since I got to sleep in in my own bed and just putter around the house. Not that my puttering has accomplished much (two loads of laundry and a trip to the grocery store) but it's the thought that counts, yeah?

So, yeah, camping trip this weekend in Fort DeSoto Park in Florida. I'm not sure what I've done to deserve vacations like this, but whatever it is I promise to try to keep doing it. Arrived Thursday night, hung out at the campsite and walked over to the pseudo-beach around the little inlet next to our campsite, where even those of us not getting stoned managed to freak ourselves out - little groups of jumping fish made loud enough splashes that we all started wondering if we should be worried about alligators. Friday we loaded up the cars and headed over to North Beach for sunning and jetskiing. Andy got up on the wake board, but by then it was late enough in the day that the rest of us deemed it too cold to get submerged and then windblown. Saturday we hooked up with Travers's parents and their boat (I'm sure everyone else on the beach was highly amused by our multiple trips ferrying people and way too many bags and coolers from beach to boat via jetski) and spent the afternoon on Egmont Key, which is, wow, beautiful. I felt like I wasn't even in the US anymore. We climbed all over a weird fort-esque structure that was incredibly creepy, collected shells, and even saw a gopher turtle and dolphins! I took the jetski out by myself, which was awesome, but of course drove a little too fast and after hitting a wave at a poor angle I realized that perhaps rolling this thing over in the middle of the bay all by myself would not be the best idea ever. Oops. On the way back to the boat dock the water had kicked up a fair amount, and I was in the front of the boat going up and down like a rollercoaster and getting drenched in saltwater spray. It was fantastic. I could have done that all day, though I think my thigh muscles would have given out sooner rather than later. Afterwards we treated ourselves to a night out, where Andy made friends with our Russian waiter at a Cuban restaurant. Before leaving town on Sunday we explored the fort, which is really just the battery now, and a hysterical trail with markers every few feet in front of empty fileds with pictures of the buildings that used to stand there. Then it was the long car ride home and back to reality. Just four days was enough for culture shock - yesterday morning I sort of marveled at the coffee pot and Anna was psyched about how easy it was to take a shower.