Spring Break 2010

Claudia and Aunt Christie

Target Practice

The kids in the helicopter

Target practice with Uncle Eric

Eric, William and Brian

Claudia, William and Cousins

Brrrr... the water is so cold!

We had a great vacation!

After we landed and got our rental car, we drove to the Mayport Navy Base north of Jacksonville, Florida to meet Brian's brother and family. They had to be there to check us civilians in (you can't get on the base without a sponsor) and stayed to have dinner with us.

William and Claudia were thrilled to see their cousins and had a great time playing in the sand with them. It's hard to believe that it has been a year since they played together. Claudia immediately began collecting all her seashells to bring home and William began digging a hole to China.

The best part of our beach vacation is that we practically had the beach to ourselves. We occasionally saw a few people as we were walking, but they were few and far between. A few times, a group of Navy men ran past us in little running shorts (I referred to this as my "Happy Hour"!). We also saw lots of dolphins, jellyfish, sand dollars and starfish and explored a few tide pools filled with amazing sea life.

The base was lots of fun to explore. There was so many ships docked there. I think we counted at least a dozen. We watched the helicopters take off and land and we drove around checking out all the buildings.

One afternoon we drove to St. Augustine and had dinner. After we finished our meal, we walked around the town checking out cannons, cannon balls and reading about the history of the town. We intended to go back and spend more time there, but I got sick and we didn't make it back. Maybe next year....

The second half of our trip was spent at Brian's brother's house where we were wined and dined. Eric and family took us to see the Jacksonville Naval Station where we explored different kinds of aircraft. We ate lunch on base and hiked to see the St. Johns River. We also visited Uncle Eric's airport where the Coast Guard's Hitron helicopters are. Uncle Eric let William and Claudia explore the helicopters and hold the big (unloaded) machine guns that they use to shoot at drug boats. We even saw one of the helicopters land.

William and Claudia want to add some of their favorite things about the trip.

William's Favorites:
holding the machine guns
Navy ships
parks
beach
swimming in the ocean
playing with my cousins
driving in Uncle Eric's Jeep
Aunt Christie's pasta

Claudia's Favorites:
dolphins
seashells
starfish
parks
Aunt Christie's homemade doughnuts
Sarah and Lucy
riding in Uncle Eric's Jeep
going out to eat