Saturday, June 21, 2008

what we did on summer vacation

Last weekend we took a trip to the Texas Coast with the author of Round Tuit and her family after a day at the Cockrell Butterfly Center, where the above picture was taken. As always, we really loved it, and as always, I was freaked out by the giant millipedes (live, yes, they're live) that they also have. Ewwwww!

The beach was awesome... so awesome that we stayed much longer than was wise, and despite many applications of sunscreen, we all got BAKED. (Wait, is baked a euphemism for stoned? I can't remember, anyway, we got really sunburned.) Poor dh got no real beach time; by the time he arrived we were scared of the sun and literally going from shady spot to shady spot under an umbrella.

We had a memorable dinner in a theme-y restaurant with many pirate mannequins (one of them danced) and shark stuff all over, etc. Then a trip to a marine research center where we got to pet some dead animals (a tiny shark, some fish, an eel) and some live ones (a sea cucumber -- GROSS! -- and a sea urchin). I think we all had a great time. We picked up some souvenirs, including a huge sand dollar that I suspect came from a different coast, but it's pretty. We also brought home the lacy, delicate designs of peeling sunburns on our backs. Flash's looks like a butterfly. Mine just looks creepy; the other day dh said, "You're MOULTING!" Nice.

4 comments:

Lindsay said...

I keep thinking about the games we're going to play and songs we're going to write during this upcoming family reunion. And I can't wait to play with flash and super Q! We're already planning a quiz game for all the nieces and nephews.

I just can't wait to have so much fun with all y'all!

Patty O. said...

Sounds like you guys had blast! No summer vacation is complete without the sting of sunburn and a dancing pirate!

P.S. I like the new look on your blog. The design in your title is beautiful. Where is it from? Did you design it yourself?

beckmarsh said...

Patty O., I scanned the design from a book called "Art Nouveau Frames & Borders" by Carol Grafton. It has so many cool designs in it, and I plan to exploit it fully on my blog. It's published by Dover (www.doverpublications.com) which has an awesome clearance area full of amazing books of NON-CUTE clipart, borders, coloring books, postcards, etc.

Kristi said...

Our zoo has a new butterfly exhibit that we are excited to go see.

Glad you had a fun vacation!