Carroll Chronicles: Amelia Island Florida

We headed to Amelia Island, Florida last Monday for another summer vacation adventure. This time we were happy to take the Dad of our family along with us! We drove the six hours to the beach and checked into our hotel....the Ritz Carlton. This little trip was an incentive prize that Stephen won through work so we were able to enjoy a wonderful, beautiful hotel experience, being pampered and taken care of in such a nice way.

I bought this cool license plate game at a little shop in Stockbridge, Massachusetts while I was there with Gretchen a week ago. We had no luck getting those western states, darn it! I guess people in the west don't want to come to Florida?

Easton and Stephen check out the view from our hotel balcony. It was incredibly beautiful but the air was so humid, even worse than in Georgia! My hair was so BIG the entire trip.

After checking into the hotel we took an evening walk on the beach. Easton was dying to get his swimsuit on, but it was a little late for swimming since the sun was almost going to sleep for the evening. What a beautiful beach!

White, soft sand that had no rocks in it. We looked for black fossilized shark teeth along the beach, it's kind of what Amelia Island is famous for. They are really hard to find but we were able to find five, which is awesome!

When we got back to the hotel after our little evening excursion Easton was so excited to find two pieces of gold wrapped chocolate on his pillow! He said over and over that he "liked this place."

After a delightful breakfast buffet on our first morning we got ready for some fun at the beach. With boogie boards, a frisbee, a football, water and sunscreen we were ready to hit the waves!

Mom and Easton waiting for a gigantic wave to pick us up and gently roll us into shore.....um, that didn't happen very often.

That was my best ride....and it only happened once. The rest of the time I just kept getting slammed into the ground and tossed around in the sand, lame.

Stephen and I traded taking turns with the camera......it's his turn now!

When you get tired of the salt and sand it's nice to be able to hang out at the pool and bask in the clear, clean water.

In the evening Stephen and I went to the Allstate celebration dinner with all the agents who won this trip. Easton ordered Macaroni and Cheese from the room service while we headed down to the food.

Shrimp and oysters were the appetizer. I'm sorry but I just couldn't bring myself to try one of those slimy oysters. People were just downing them like they were candy and they just looked gross to me. We headed to the grits bar where you covered a bowl of creamy grits with your choice of toppings. I picked baby seasoned shrimp, cheese, bacon, and some yummy candied pecans. I'm not a grits person but these were awesome! I could have gone back for another helping but I was full from the rest of the meal. We went through a fresh salad bar and then went to the table with the meats that the servers slice for you. We had some sort of beef, pork and the obligatory fish choice which wasn't very good. But the grand finale....the dessert table was so yummy! They had a lovely spread of various cupcakes and little chocolate covered strawberries and other sweet delights. Stephen and I tried all six of the cupcakes. The Key Lime and the Salted Caramel were my favorite. Stephen liked the little chocolate ball things that were on a stick. They looked like little chocolate suckers but when you bit into them they had a soft, creamy cheesecake center. I delicious surprise! We ended our feast a little early so we could go back up the room and be with Easton. We didn't want to leave him too long. They did a fireworks show on the beach at the end of the Gala and we zoomed down with Easton to watch the celebration. What a night!

And here we are getting ready for another day at the beach...braiding my cookoo hair and Easton carefully applying sunscreen.

We had to go further out this day to catch the waves. I mean we had to seriously go way out and we were still touching the ground. Everyday at the beach is always different.

Easton and I went out for dinner in town without Stephen because he wanted to stay in the room and watch Argentina playing in the World Cup. And guess what? There was a TV at every table in the yummy little pizza joint that we ate at. We watched the end of the game with the owner of the restaurant and enjoyed the excitement and energy of the intense game that Argentina won.