Bacca's "recent" visit.

Well, I'm going to try to cram the last few months of 2011 into its last few days. It won't happen, but maybe I'll get close and can start 2012 almost caught up.

So my dad came to visit recently. (What's that? You assume he came for Christmas? Nope. He came just after Halloween. But it was November! So I'm getting a tad closer to catching up. Babble babble babble, blah blah blah. Back to recapping (Bacca's) Dad's visit.) As usual, the best moments happened during downtime, just chilling at the house. And I have nothing to show for that as I only took pics of our outings. When will I learn?

Our main outings of Bacca's visit were to the beach and later Seaworld. Let's start with the beach. We went to our sentimental favorite, Honeymoon Island. Thankfully, and largely because of local opposition, Honeymoon Island State Park remains protected.

Protected for us to enjoy. Gawd, I do love the beach. I don't need to swim, sunbathe, or anything else. I just want to be there, close my eyes, and listen to the surf. Feel the breeze. Open my eyes and see the vast, blue Gulf.

Lily, however, just wants to build castles.

Or maybe pretend our beach towel is a kite while Bacca and Husband explored the coast.
Strangely, it was one of the only cold days we've had during the non-summer part of the year. We went to the dog beach because it seemed more protected from the strong winds of that day. It was a fairly long walk to the beach from the car. But I saw an armadillo! No one else did, but it was real.

 

One last parting photo. Photog note: no one wants to look at the sun and smile.

Our other big outing of the trip was Seaword. Honestly, the idea of going to Seaworld had been troubling me. Any time you go to a zoo or a Busch Gardens or Seaword, you can't help but notice that uncomfortable paradox: beautiful, amazing animals to actually see and get close to, vs. lack of freedom. No, they don't belong in captivity. It's unnatural for them. On the other hand, many nearly-extinct species only exist because of zoos and captivity. These facilities allow us to see these creatures, admire them, and want to protect them. And so in lies the dilemma. If you're interested, I suggest reading the Zoo Story: Life. Death. The Paradox of Freedom, a series in the St. Pete Times turned into a book, all written by Thomas French. Click here to read it, and, for now, I'll pull this quote from the story, 

"All this talk of freedom, as if it were some pure and limitless river flowing through the wild, providing for every creature and allowing them all to live in harmony. On an overcrowded planet, where open land is disappearing and more species are slipping toward extinction every day, freedom is not so easily defined."  

It's just not a black and white issue. 

It is Lily's childhood right to not have to deal with the ethical dilemma, and I wasn't about to put that burden on her little mind. All I wanted was for her to see these amazing animals and understand why they matter. 

She was most excited to go through the shark tunnel. Crappy picture aside, it was pretty cool.

 

Dolphins are far more lovable than sharks. Probably the smile.

This guy wasn't part of the exhibit, but birds aren't stupid and they go where the food is. The snowy egret is probably my favorite egret.

 

Oh, and then there was the best part. We went to see the Shamu show and my child fell asleep. No, really. She fell asleep. During the show. Put her in a dark, cool, quiet bedroom, and she won't sleep. But put her in a large, crowded stadium with crazy lights and music, and she's out like a light. Go figure.

After her little nap-sa-doodle, we decided to squeeze in one more show to end the day. We saw Blue Horizons, which is a more artsy-fartsy show with dolphins, whales posing as dolphins, birds, music, acrobats, and story. Lily watched with wide-open, enchanted eyes. She loved it.

 

 

 And so ended our day at Seaworld.

Beyond the tourist part, Bacca's visit was fabulous. We did some grilling, appliance shopping, and just relaxing. Personally (though I don't have the pictures to show for it), my favorite part of the visit was Lily playing with Bacca and them playing silly games that she invents. Particularly the trick-or-treat game in which my dad had to pretend to be Mickey Mouse. His impression was pretty close to the mark.

It was definitely not a visit we will forget anytime soon.