family vacation

Ok.  I give.  Even a strong-willed girl like me will eventually figure out when to throw in the towel.  Maybe it’s not in the cards for me to catch my own waves on this trip.  After all, I’ve only been surfing a month now and as I’ve been told a few times before, I may need to do a little expectation management.

So I decided to use today’s session, the last one of the trip, to practice my duck dive.  This is the way that surfers push themselves and their boards under an oncoming wave while paddling out to the lineup.

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We’re a few days into our vacation now and this place is an absolute paradise.  We’ve been playing tennis, catching up on summer reading, and of course surfing every chance we get.

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Before breakfast, Ted’s daughter and I were going to go for a jog but we decided to check out the waves before we began our trod through the muggy morning air.  According to the surf report, not much of anything was forecasted for the entire week, but a stiff southeast wind began blowing during the night so we were hoping that would push up some waves by the next afternoon.

What we saw when we got to the top of a beach access was almost magical.  There were waves: clean, pretty, and most importantly, big enough to catch without a push from someone.  We couldn’t believe our luck!  While the run would have been good, we decided to can it in favor of grabbing our rash guards and boards. A short time later we were paddling out.
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Today we arrived at what will be our home for the next seven days: St. George Island

Ted’s family spent a week here a few years ago and they have wanted to come back ever since.  So this morning, his youngest daughter came over from Pensacola; his mom, sister, brother‑in‑law, and their girls drove over from Jacksonville; and his brother-in-law’s sister flew up from Miami.  It’s a house full of people completely stoked about the week ahead.
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