Florida - Sunday, June 23rd
07-24-2002,

Florida - Sunday, June 23rd...

July 24, 2002

The first thing we noticed when we got up on Sunday was that it was bright and sunny out. I really think that both Cory and myself did happy dances for that one. We were going to spend the whole day at the beach and nothing was going to stop us. It was our last day in Florida and we wanted it to be perfect and for once the weather looked like it was going to cooperate. Tonya made us a yummy yummy breakfast, and that was really nice to wake up to as well. She made bisquits and gravy, which is Cory's favorite, and she made eggs and bacon and it was all just very very good. As we ate, we talked about our day and what we wanted to do. We knew that we had to clean the condo at some point, but we agreed that we would rather do that later at night, especially with the day being as beautiful as it was. Jen, however, was not anxious to go back to the beach, and so she said that she would rather stay at the condo and do some of the housekeeping, and lay around and read her book. We were sad that she wouldn't be spending the day with us, but we knew that she would have more fun doing what she wanted to do, so we didn't even ask her to reconsider. I think that it was nice, that we all spent that last day doing exactly what we wanted to be doing. So after making sure that Jen didn't want to join us (she didn't) Cory, Tonya and I got on our suits and headed for the tram, while Jen relaxed for a while before she started the laundry (thanks again for doing the laundry and fans and stuff Jen, hehe).

We just missed a tram so we had to wait a few minutes for the next tram, which we didn't seem to mind at all. It was actually pretty fun, cause we used that time to get some really cute pictures of each other, by all the signs and on the boardwalk.. and we sat and talked about the trip and all that we had done already. It was such a great morning, and our spirts were really high. It wasn't long before the tram got there, and we were on our way to the beach for the last time. We were all a little quiet on the tram, just taking in all the little sights that we would want to remember... making memories as we call it sometimes.

We got to the beach, and picked our the spot we wanted, and went to set up our stuff. There were a few more people there today and the cabana boy was down the beach helping someone else, so we grabbed our own chairs and umbrella, and what a moment that was. I was cracking up, because we couldn't get the umbrella opened, although, I have to admit that I didn't help try as much, because I was too busy taking pictures of Tonya and Cory struggling with it. Those pictures crack me up. Finally some guy came and took pity on us and set up the umbrella for us. Of course it only took him a matter of seconds to do so, which made us laugh all the more. There went the notion that maybe something was wrong with the umbrella, instead of us, lol. It didn't take us long to set up our stuff.. we were such bad beachgoers on this day.. we didn't bring any water or food, or anything... just ourselves, towels, shell bags, sunscreen and our books. I still can't believe that we were so anxious to get there, that we didn't take the time to do it right.. but that is all said and done, and next time we will know better... well maybe.

We didn't waste anytime this day, and we went right into the water to splash around and play for a while. We spent the whole day at the beach, just going from the water, to the shells.. to the chairs to sit and read.. back to the water. While we were missing Jen bunches, none of us wanted to leave the beach until we had to. We were all sorta sad at the thought of leaving the next day and we wanted to do as much as we could that day. Cory bought us pina colada's at one point (thanks Coco Caboose - her new nickname she earned on vacation, as she was always bringing up the rear whenever we walked anywhere, giggle). We sat under the umbrellas and sipped on those for a bit, just enjoying the moment. It was so tropical, and beachy, hehe and really a good way to describe the whole day. We said we were going to have rounds of coladas.. but somehow we never did go back for another.. drinkers that we all are, lol, not. Instead we just splashed around and took pictures together and of each other. One thing that we were careful to do is make it back to our spots and reapply sunscreen often. Lot of good that did us, we all ended up fried that day, but I can't even imagine how bad it would have been had we not been applying sunscreen all day long.

Cory and Tonya decided to swim over to this sandbar and follow it out in the water. I was reading my book, so I waited a bit before I went over to join them, but they looked like they were having a blast so it didn't take me long. The little inlet of water that you had to cross though had such a strong current and at first, I was a little scared.. not to swim across, but you never know what is in that water when you are floating along in it.. I tell you I worry about that kind of thing, lol.. but I made it across, and we sat on this sand bar collecting all kinds of cool shells. We had little piles going, so Cory offered to swim back across to get our shell bags. We stayed over there for the longest time, finding the neatest shells and just enjoying ourselves. Cory and I swam back at one point for more sunscreen and she went and brought us back a little bit of water. When I was putting on some sunscreen, this little old lady came over and asked if she could do my back for me.. She said that it was really burned. I thanked her and told her that my friend would be right back and that I would have her put some on me.. she said "okay, but make sure you put some on your friend too, she is really red". I was laughing telling Cory that, because sure enough we were so red, and we were so going to pay for that later... but it didn't stop us and back over by Tonya we went. Finally, we decided to go back and put our shells down and swim for a while before we headed back to the Condo.

The tide was going out, and so the water was down alot. We made our way pretty far out, and it was still not at all deep. We were just standing there in the water talking... I was facing out towards the water, and Cory and Tonya were both facing the shore. I was looking over their shoulders when all of a sudden I saw a fin. Now remember, I am afraid in the water to begin with.. so my first thought (and the first words out of my mouth) was SHARK!!! I was out of there, lol, and the girls were not far behind me... until we realized.. it wasn't a shark, but a dolphin... a few of them in fact. It was the most wonderful thing. I ran to get my camera and we took tons of pictures running up and down the beach following the dolphins, watching them play. They were coming right up to the beach, playing in the surf and we would get so excited everytime they came out of the water.. we were screaming and laughing, and I can't even count the number of times that one of us would say "what a perfect ending to this day". It was just perfect... the whole day, but especially this moment. It was fun, and exciting, and just so great. I loved sharing this with my closest friends, and there were so many points in this day where we would say, I wish Jen was here. We got tons of pictures as we walked up and down the beach following the dolphins. I have always loves dolphins and it was so neat to see them in their natural habitat, playing and swimming. We also took some great pictures of some sandpipers that were playing at the edge of the water. They were cool because they let you get pretty close to them. It was really, as I said, the perfect ending to our day at the beach. We finally went back and packed up our stuff and caught the tram back to the condo. I wasn't feeling very well by then, a little woosy for a few minutes, more than likely because I was just a little more than a bit dehydrated. It felt good to get back to the condo, and get some water in us. We were glad to see Jen too (she was as burned as we were.. she decided to spend some time at the pool, and without sunscreen). I started dinner, since it was my night (Chicken vesuvio) and then we hopped in the pool, and Tonya brought us out some watermelon which we practically inhaled.

We decided that we were going to go shopping for souveniers after dinner. We had all brought dresses to wear that night.. since we never really dress up when we are together. We all went and took our showers and got dressed, and then sat down for dinner. Everyone looked so beautiful, sniff sniff.. and we had a wonderful last dinner together. Afterwards we headed out to go to downtown in Naples.. only to find out that with it being Sunday, everything was closed.. we were all a little bummed at first, but then we saw the sign for the public beach, and we decided to stop there to take some pictures together in our pretty dresses. It was awesome!!! We got to see a group of baby sting rays that had gotten stuck in a tide pool. That was totally cool, but we felt bad for them, and were happy when a group of guys got some nets to catch them and put them back in the ocean. Yay! We got a ton of pictures, in groups, and all together with the timer on the camera, and thanks to some very nice people on the beach. As we were taking pictures, the sun started setting, and what a beautiful sight it was. Oh my gosh, it was just so beautiful and we got some of the best pictures that night.. pictures that I will always love and cherish. I am having such a hard time picking the one that I want to have framed, because there are so many.. maybe I will just have to do one of those collage frames, hehe.

We hung out at the beach there for a while, just taking pictures and just looking at the sunset, and thinking about how wonderful the week had been. I guess in ways, we were anxious to be getting home, but yet none of us really wanted to leave. It was one of those bittersweet moments that you will always remember. Eventually, we made our way back to the van, trying to decide what we were going to do for souveniers since we had never gotten the chance to get any. It looked like we were going to have to do some shopping at Walgreens of all places. I knew that I could pick some stuff up on the way home, but I had really wanted to at least get Stephen and Chrissy and June a t-shirt from Naples, and we knew that they had some stuff at walgreens. We actually had fun there and were cracking up. We were in so much pain from our sunburns at this point, so we were scouring the store for the best pain relief for that. It was actually quite comical, spraying solarcaine on each other in the middle of the aisles. Hey it hurt, bad. We each got a few things, and Jen bought us candles that had shells in them, which were so pretty (thanks Jen), and we stopped at another store so that Tonya could get Mike a hawaiian shirt (hmmm, and look what happened now, they are moving to hawaii, how coincidental, lol). We even got more sunburn stuff at this store, lol.. we ended up with a few things, and then we headed back to the condo for our cleaning fest. Before we did though we took a few more pictures at the condo in our dresses, which came out to be adorable.. Then it was time to change into our jammies and get to work. It took a while to get everything spic and span and to get our bags packed, but we worked so well together, and it wasn't hard. We had to leave for the airport bright and early though, so we knew that it had to be done before we went to bed. When it was done and everything looked great, Jen went to bed, and the rest of us sat up and talked about how much fun we had, and how we didn't want it to be over. But it was, and it was time to head back home. I will never forget the time that we spent together in Florida though, especially now that Tonya is moving away for 3 years, and we know that we won't have chances to do things like this again for a while. It was the best vacation, thanks to the fact that I got to spend it with my best friends. I am getting teary just writing this, lol. I can close my eyes and remember how all of it felt.. it was really such a perfect day all around.