2011-11-19 - in Vero Beach, FL

Well, here it is! - Dylan's new Beach Buggy. We ordered a Folding Beach Cart from Wheeleez and added his bath chair from home. These beach carts are great as they have large balloon tires that are supposed to take you over sand, etc. We toyed with many options over the course of our preparations to see what the best method would be to get him in the water. He loves the water and waves - what 6-year old wouldn't. We had to get something that would be portable and functional in the water. Also, it had to be foldable as we have so much stuff on the boat already. For Dylan he has a walker, wheelchair seat, 3 foam positioning chairs (tumbleforms), bike trailer, and now....a Beach Buggy! We spend a lot of time at the beach - or expect to...so this will, hopefully, be great for all of us! We were going to do a trial run with it with a very nice family we met from (of all places) Mississauga, Ontario. They are on a boat called, Cee Gem and have two young girls similar in ages to our two.  Connor was excited to finally have a play with some other kids as we haven't seen too many so far.  But, first we needed to get to shore to pick up  some supplies for the motors.  Kerry took the dinghy down river to take care of that, and I took the boys for a walk.  We ended up at a little garage sale down the street from the marina.  It was a great find as the lady was a teacher and

 

Captain Connor drives us back home!



had wonderful books, little hand instruments, craft supplies, etc that we just couldn't resist (although, I probably should have) taking all of it.  As we were loading up our finds into a very large bag a small lizard popped out of the bag and landed on Connor.  This was very new to him, but he just loved it.  The  lizard stayed with him for several minutes.  We finally had to release our little friend back to the wild and walk back to the marina.  Cee Gem had arrived back from shopping and were eager to find the beach.  We had looked on GoogleMaps to see if there was a place to go to land our dinghy.  GoogleMaps is a great tool for this as you can see what is actually there on the map.  We headed down and the landing spot was a success.  There was a couple of trees ready to be tied to and off we went to the beach.  The waves were high and the red flag was flying indicating danger for going swimming in the water.  We would just be on the edge of the water for our trial run.  I figured, we would just see how the wheels worked and how it handled being in the water.  The waves rolled in and we inched him a bit forward so that Dylan's toes would get wet.  He loved it!  You could tell that he was really enjoying the experience and being with the other kids.  Just then a large wave broke and went up and over his chair and over his face.  He squealed louder and absolutely loved that!   He was soaked.  This chair was definitely a success!  I can't wait to head  the into calmer (well, not too calm as he is a bit of a daredevil!) water so that he can really get wet and enjoy himself.  Not too far off now.  Bahamas is right around the corner.   Warm, clear waters!  

The rats are getting bad...but, still manageable

When we got home we ended up having a nice chat with our new neighbours on the mooring ball.  They have been travelling since 2003 and have 4 ferrets on board.  The boys loved the little critters...and now, Connor is no longer wanting a snake...but a ferret (or maybe two)!  I told him to wait off until he sees more animals and decides that he wants.  Maybe next a Shark or a whale perhaps?  Kerry and Connor also went back to Cee Gem tonight to chat about anchorages and routes in the Bahamas. They may do the crossing with us as they have never done it and we are on the same route.  I hope that we can make that happen!