All I Want For Christmas Is A Real Good Tan

We just returned from a wonderful, relaxing getaway to New Smyrna Beach, FL. We took Aaron out of school for the week, got his homework from his teachers, and we were on our way! My friend Beth suggested this beach, which is south of Daytona Beach, where we have been a few times. This beach is beautiful, and the town itself lends itself to having a hometown feel, instead of a tour-esty one, and I really loved that. We spent most of our time playing on the beach, where it was around 80 degrees and sunny each day! Soooooo much different than Ohio in December!!! Aaron did a lot of boogey boarding, clam digging, playing football with Greg on the beach, and shuffle boarding. I played in the waves, took long walks, and held down the beach chair, which I have quite the talent for. After dark, around 8pm, we grabbed the flashlights and nets and went crab hunting, that was a blast! We caught and released about a dozen crabs during the week. One afternoon we went on a 2 hour boat ride on the Indian River Lagoon, where we saw several dolphins and tropical birds. Aaron held a seastar on that trip, too! We spent one afternoon at Canaveral National Seashore, hiking trails with huge live oaks covered in Spanish moss, and searched the beach for shells. The meals out were awesome, I love me some fresh seafood, ya know!!! Blackbeards ( Beth's favorite! ), PJ's Seafood ( where Aaron managed to INHALE a pound of crablegs. He is a child after my own heart! ), and my all time favorite place, Inlet Harbor in Ponce Inlet ( with the best sunset views ) were the places we ate during the week. I would have loved to stay the winter there, our condo was beautiful and spacious. But Greg said something about needing to have a job and money, or something like that. So, back to the cold we came. I had to trade in my swimsuit for a coat, flip flops for my Justin boots. But, we all 3 loved it there so much it may be our vacation destination next winter too!!!