Big Pig 5 - Days 12-15(?) Highlights

 I'm just going to do some highlights of the last four days in Cocoa Beach, since the play-by-play call would involve just lots of stories of sessions at the pool and screaming fits during sunscreen application time.

1.) We spent the last two days at the complex’s small pool because someone—not any of our kids—pooped in the big pool.  Don (or possibly Ron), a barrel-chested, year-round resident with bottle blonde hair halfway down his back, believed he knew the culprit and hinted strongly it was an incontinent adult.  So with that pool off-limits, we went to the smaller pool, where James found a little frog. 

This frog, which presumably had been enjoying itself in the pool before we showed up, became a contested item between all the kids (a classic case of Girardian mimetic desire).  The poor animal either suffered some measure of internal organ failure from all of the grabbing and squeezing, or initiated a dorsal vegal strategy and just kind of shut down—alive, but unfeeling and unmoving—because after a while it gave up trying to get away and let the kids do what they wanted with it.  Eventually, Anna convinced the others that wild animals should be free, and they let it go.  James moaned, “I’ll never see Hopster again..."

Hopster making himself a home in James' bellybutton 

2.) James had several sleepovers with Wynn, first at their place, then at ours.  The kids all watched the new Disney movie, Luca.  There were several BBQs around the pool.  And, we managed to get to Fishlips, finally.  TBH, it was lovely, and my food was delicious, though Christopher did say it had definitely positioned itself upmarket after a recent renovation.  We got a seat on the back deck, just along the port.  While we waited for our food to arrive, we watched a small pod of dolphins frolic in in the shallow water. 

So, Grills or Fishlips?  Obviously, Grills.  It’s more laid back and there’s live music most nights.  I think Fishlips also has live music, but I certainly didn’t see it while we were there (we also didn’t see it at Grills, because we were there for lunch, but I assure you, its cover bands are more, uh, authentic than the ones who play at Fishlips).  Plus, the fresh fish is a little cheaper at Grills and there’s more of it on the menu.  So there you have it once and for all: Grills!  Accept no substitutes.

3.) I spent the morning packing up on Saturday and prepping the condo for being closed up for 4 months, while Erica took the boys to the (small) pool and enjoyed their company for once instead of working.  After saying goodbye to the Brown Thomases, we headed for 95 North and our day’s resting place—the La Quinta Inn of Florence, SC. 

Our plan was to stop in St. Augustine, FL—America’s oldest (settled by white people) city, and their medieval fort, but James and Erica had fallen asleep by the time we passed it, and I didn’t want to disrupt the bliss.  (Juliet, on the other hand, refused to sleep and so was a complete crab for the remainder of the day.)  This meant a bit more time in Savannah, which was to be Educational Stop #2. 

Savannah is very cool.  Like a little New Orleans, its boulevards are lined with antebellum mansions and old oaks dripping with Spanish Moss.  We parked right at the famous Chippewa Square, where the Forest Gump park bench scenes were filmed, and grabbed some dinner at an anachronistically futuristic outdoor South African diner, where meals are ordered on screens at terminals throughout the restaurant (there is also a person there who helps you make all of your menu choices, so the machines are redundant as well.  Afterwards, we walked up and down Bull St., and Juliet took a picture in front of the Juliet Gordon Low House (she founded Girl Scouts.) 

Chippewa Square.  Lotsa moss!

Juliet (at the) Gordon Low House

Florence being 3 hours away, we left before we really wanted to, and sped out way through swampy lowlands to what is apparently the fourth largest city in South Carolina?  The La Quinta Inn there was a bit haggard—there was neither a blackout curtain on the window nor a shower curtain in the bathroom.  I slept terribly, as I always do in hotel rooms.  The next day, we scarfed some continental breakfast fare and hit the road To the Outer Banks!