Summer fun continued through June and July. We love how easy it is for us to go to our local beach. We can walk or drive (and there's always a parking spot). We can do a casual visit to just wade in the water and just stay for 45 minutes then go home to cool off in the pool. Growing up, it was more of an excursion to the beach so it felt like we had to stay for several hours. Now we can just drop by and decide to leave when we think we've had enough sun.
I had fun taking stock photos of the kids jumping in front of the colorful water. The funny thing is that other kids apparently noticed this and insisted their parents also take pictures of them jumping in front of the ocean.
We were hoping we'd have our five vending machine locations set up before summer, but it ended up happening during the summer. Here's us at our first machine (at a luxury apartment complex in SE Jacksonville).
The coolest thing about our second machine placement (at another luxury apartment complex near the first one) is that a beautiful peacock lives there! He apparently showed up after Hurricane Irma...and therefore he is named "Irma".
In June we traveled to Gainesville to help Granddad celebrate his birthday and Father's Day.
We had an outing to the Florida Museum of Natural History and saw a new feature in the main hallway that was really fun. On a large screen they showed a live video broadcast of the people in the room, with wild creatures, like tigers, lions, and elephants, superimposed and walking around on the video image. It was so cool.
And we made another visit to the wonderful butterfly exhibit.
The kids only had three camp weeks during the summer. We didn't need to add more since we didn't have to be in an office like in the past. But we did want them to have some fun camp experiences. For the first one, Brielle went to Sea Turtle Camp at the Whitney Center for Marine Biology in Marineland (only 15 minutes south of us). She had some great experiences interacting with marine life, going to the beach across the street, and learning about marine biology.
During that week, Ronan went to Golf Camp, which he requested. He was the youngest there, but the instructors said he did a great job and seemed to really enjoy it. Both Papa and Grandpa Taylor would be very excited if Ronan takes up golf, and certainly Florida is a great place to do that. But we'll see if he continues to show interest. He's definitely interested in miniature golf, at least.
Their second camp was Tennis Camp, which they got to do together. It was in Palm Coast, over 30 minutes south of us, but it was really difficult to find full-day camps for kids Ronan's age, as well as camps where both kids could be together. They like playing tennis, so they seemed to enjoy it. Weather was kind of tricky with super-hot days outside and sporadic thunderstorms, but they had an indoor area to play in, so it worked out okay. It was at a community center, so they also got to swim in a big pool at the end of the camp day.
The third camp was "Ancient City Pa Kua", a Chinese-inspired martial arts camp that included martial arts, yoga, archery, swords, and arts and crafts. We had never been there before, but it sounded pretty darn cool. I don't have any photos, but they really loved it.
During the first camp week, Ronan's golf camp was one day longer than Brielle's turtle camp, so Brielle and I had a free day to hang out together. To my surprise, I ended up suggesting we go to the Fountain of Youth. I say "my surprise" because all I remember about that place was the part where you drink some special water. But when I looked it up, I found out that there were various attractions on the site, including a planetarium show and another one that had a two-story earth globe. There were also grounds with setups of the early Timucuan Indian settlements and a boardwalk out to the intracoastal waterway. We, of course, drank from the Fountain of Youth.
This one did an amazing display and "shaking" dance to try to attract a mate.
And, for the first time, we saw baby peacocks!
There was at least one albino peacock that was in full display when we first arrived. We didn't get a photo, so Brielle and I followed him around for a while, hoping he'd open his tail feathers again.
Fort Matanzas is just a few miles down the island from us, so we've been wanting to visit for the past year. Unfortunately, it's only accessible by boat, and the boat ramp had been destroyed by the 2017 hurricanes. When it finally opened, we ran down there to take a tour.
It's very small, compared to the Castillo de San Marco, but it was interesting. After taking the boat across the river, the tour guide told us about the history of the ancient fort and we were able to climb up and go inside.
I remember really liking the Ripley's Believe it or Not Museum as a kid, but honestly I was hesitant to take the kids there because some of the images (e.g., two-headed calf) are disturbing. As a kid I felt like I loved it but also got a couple of nightmares from it. However, Ronan is completely obsessed with world records, including the tallest man and shortest person, so we suspected he would like it. While there, he got to meet (a model of) the main object of his fascination, Robert Wadlow, the tallest man ever.
The museum also features collections of interesting or weird stuff from around the world, like shrunken heads and artwork made completely out of BBQ sauce. The current display was Star Wars images made out of old computer parts.
The kids decided to use "Grandma Pat birthday money" to make wax copies of their hands. It was a long process of dipping their hands in ice water, then in hot wax. Then they peeled and colored the hand shapes to make displays the kids could take home (which I apparently didn't take a photo of). They really enjoyed it. (Thanks, Grandma Pat!)
The museum also had "Brain Games" type displays, but the kids had all the illusions figured out from watching the "Brain Games" TV show. It was still cool. The way out of that area featured a bridge going through a spinning room that makes walking across it completely disorienting.
On the way out, Brielle posed in front of the "impossible fountain", showing her weird tongue tricks and crossed eyes.
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