Vacay Day 2: This Vacation May Kill Us

Today do not go well.

We started off at the little zoo that could--a lovely little zoo full of playful critters that you can get a bit closer to than at most of the big zoos we've visited. And the girls got to ride a camel and play with lemurs.

Unfortunately, halfway through our visit, PS started feeling bad. First she started seeing spots, then she said her head hurt and she was getting nauseous. I had to leave DH and the twins playing with the lemurs while I ran PS back to the condo. She cried the whole way back. I'm pretty sure she was suffering from her first migraine. I gave her a dose of super Excedrin and a cold washrag on her head and left her alone in a cool dark room for a while.

After I retrieved the rest of the family from the zoo, I took the TT and SS down to the beach while DH stayed with PS in the condo. The wind was blowing today and the waves were crashing hard. I took the kids' boogie board into the the water and was immediately rolled into the sand, and have road rash (sea rash?) on my shin to show for it. For the rest of the afternoon a stream of blood slowly leaked down my leg.

A little later I had retired to the beach with a magazine while the girls played in the surf. SS had a floaty mat and TT had a ring. They started floating a little down the beach from me. They were right at the edge of my comfort level. And, then, within a minute, they were beyond my comfort level. I started walking down the beach toward them, reached TT quickly. I could hear SS yelling at her, and from the tone, I knew she was scared. I ordered TT back to the beach, and headed out toward SS. Even as I was moving toward her, the ocean seemed to be drawing her farther and farther away.

I am not an athlete, but, thankfully, I have always been a strong swimmer. Still, about halfway toward SS I started getting worried. I couldn't touch at all, and she still looked so far away. We weren't on a public beach, so there was no lifeguard. Only a handful of other people, who I hoped were paying attention. Three-quarters of the way there, I was getting tired and really worried. It was pure mommy adrenaline that got me to SS. I finally nabbed the end of SS's mat and side-stroked my way back to shore. It was a whole lot easier getting back to shore than going out. But by the time we did get back my heart was beating about a thousand beats per minute and I was breathing hard. I think it took two hours for my heart rate to come back down.

Once we got back to the beach, I plopped down to text DH. But my iphone said that the temperature was too high to operate. (WTF?) So I carefully balanced it in the cooler. In the meantime, the girls went back to collecting shells in the surf.

And then SS got stung by a jellyfish. So she comes up to me screaming. And, of course, I'd left the bottle of vinegar back in the condo. Right at that moment the wind grabbed TT's floaty ring and rolled it, on it's side down the beach. It rolled and rolled and rolled--at least a couple hundred yards.

So I was still recovering fro my deep-sea rescue, one kid was screaming in pain, and the other was running down the beach after a $2 floaty. At least my phone cooled down so I was able to frantically text DH to bring down the vinegar and help us Sherpa all of our beach gear back to the condo.

By that time PS was feeling better, so we all schlepped back to the condo and crashed for a nap. I can now feel every single muscle in my shoulders and back. At least I got a nice work-out.