Trips to Florida!

I have now taken two trips to Florida with Greta. The latter of the two all by myself. The first trip I was accompanied by my wife.

We spent several days (felt like a few hours) in Sebastian on the Indian river in search of the increasingly elusive clam. This is an experience I am not soon to forget. We began the clam-hunt mid-morning (parent time) at about 8:30am. We boarded a small outboard fishing boat and headed for the shallow regions of the far side of the river. The process is very simple, but quite rewarding when you actually find something. The method for clamming is similar to the method used by drunk, arrhythmic white people trying to impress a chick (hopefully not a cousin) on the dance floor at a wedding. You look a bit of a fool in the process, but in the end, there is hope that you will be ...well... rewarded with a clam.
1) Step out of the boat into a black tarry goo that sits about 2 feet under the crystal clear water.
2) Do the twist, the macarena, the cha-cha, or whatever strikes your fancy in an attempt to break through the upper layer of goo into the even softer clam-rich lower goo.
3) Feel the hard lump under your barefoot toes.
4) Pray that it is not an eel.
5) Reach down and dig up that clam.
6)Rejoice and thank the clam gods.
7)Have another beer.
8)Repeat.
We successfully rounded up enough clams to feed a large family that as my Uncle Al would say: "eats like they have fourteen anuses".

Clamming was a very memorable part of a really nice time that we spent with my Florida family. Late nights playing a game originally titled "Chicken Feet", early morning breakfasts with my daughter Greta at the adjoining hotel (Yes we snuck in and pretended to be patrons in order to score waffles), "cocktails" with my cousin Christine at Hirems, birthday songs sung ad nauseam for my cousin Sara, and enlightening music introduced by my cousin Daniele. Oh yea, I even got dance lessons from Christine's beau Paul. Many people close to him don't know this, but Paul was the dancing-stunt double in the movies, Dirty Dancing, Flash Dance, and Save the Last Dance. He did all the hard stuff. As a result of my lessons, some people might say that I could be a dancing-stunt double too (I am offering a reward for anyone heard saying that).
After some much appreciated family time, Greta, Nana, and I headed down to Ft Lauderdale to further unwind at a small hotel called "The Pillars" on the intracoastal. Yes it is called INTRAcoastal and not INTERcostal as even the natives (namely my mother) get it wrong. I would highly recommend staying at the Pillars. Tiffany and Christine the hosts, were very accommodating and welcoming. We each had an hour-long deep tissue massage and nearly melted under the force of pure relaxation. Aunt Marybeth, Uncle John, Cathy and the kids joined us later that day for time spent swimming, eating, and further relaxing. (Thanks for the video game!)
All-in-all it was a fine vacation. Thanks to everyone who made it possible, especially my in-laws who gave me the ticket, and the Anthonys who welcomed us into their strange clammy world.

Random Thoughts:

• 2 dropper's full of tylenol in baby=nice flight

• She slept therefore I slept through most every night due to always being on the move and swimming a couple hours each day. Wear them out!
  
• Practice makes perfect, she is now swimming like Spitz.
  

Pictures to come!