Key Summary

It’s hard to believe that as quickly as our vacation arrived, the vacation was quickly over. We had a great time with our friends, met some really nice people at the Santa Maria Suites Resort, and definitely took advantage of the warm (and humid) weather. Below is a quick summary of our trip in photos…

I let Lauren do all of the travel arrangements and as such, we had to leave our house the Sunday morning following Thanksgiving at 4:30am. As we pushed Ethan through DCA, we got plenty of looks like the one above. As you can see, he’s still in his pajamas and I think he’s wishing he was still in his own bed.

Once on the plane and dressed for the day, Ethan was very interested in all of the fun buttons and nozzles that were over mommy’s head. In this picture, he was trying to jack up the air. He was a complete joy to fly with… until he decided that he wanted to go back to sleep and there was no bed to lay down on. In the end, mom and dad’s lap sufficed.

Once on the island, we started every morning with a trip to the Coffee and Tea House on Duval St. where our presence became quickly known and expected by the locals. Since both of our kids were up at the crack of dawn, it was not unusual to find us waiting outside the coffeehouse at 6:59 waiting for it to open at 7am. While the kids waited for mom and dad to get their caffeine fix they would amuse themselves, whether it with their own toys (like Evan on the right) or by trying to torment the other child (like Ethan on the left).

The afternoons were spent in the pool allowing both kids to work on their swimming form. I think both kids enjoyed the bathtub-like temperatures as smiles abounded.

Did I mention that our suite opened out into a beautiful courtyard with two pools? The first few days we were able to leave the door to our balcony wide open to let the refreshing breeze into our place. Unfortunately, by the end of the trip the humidity had returned and our view was obstructed by the condensation that formed by the difference in temperatures (my meteorological explanation).

When it was time to go, the Clark family had to kill a little bit of time before it was our turn to catch a cab to the airport. Mom wrote nice letters to the staff while Ethan flipped around looking for cartoons. I’m serious… he actually changed the channel (one would assume accidentally) to the Cartoon Network.

All in all, it was a great trip, and one that we’d love to repeat some day. We were happy to have stayed on the southern side of the island away from all of the touristy stuff, and are definitely happy with where we ended up staying (thanks Mr. Long). Traveling with Ethan was not as bad as I had thought it might be, despite our hellacious last day (more on that later), and would not hesitate to take another trip with him.