Portofino Paradise

This post is a litte late, but let's just consider it the typical back-to-school "My Summer Vacation" report. In mid-June, we went on a five-day vacation with The Lewis Family to Portofino Island in Pensacola, FL. The eight of us piled up into a Suburban and made the 8-hour road trip from Houston. The highlight of the trip was the condo unit itself: roughly 2,034 sq feet, 3 bedrooms, 3.5 baths, extended tile throughout, a 472 sq ft balcony with entries from each bedroom... ahhhh... you just have to check it out for yourself (http://www.portofinoisland.com/). Highly recommended.

Other trip highlights:

Swimming, swimming, and more swimming... I mean that's what beaches are for, right?

Janai, Brooke and Bayli in their bathing suits about 5 minutes after our arrival. Believe it or not, the straight-back cornrows theme was unplanned, but necessary, given all of the water they would be in throughout the week.

We took a spin on the Go-Karts.

Janai and I led the pack! Ok... not really!
(Ahem, to all of my Dow friends, did you notice my safety glasses?)

Monica and Bayli (or is it Brooke?) wait patiently for the race to begin.

Juan and Brooke (or is it Bayli?) rolling in the Hot Wheels go-kart.

You can't go all the way to Florida without a playing a round of miniature golf, can you? How creative were we in our activity selection (NOT)!

Monica and Brooke (or is it Bayli?) give it their best shot.

We also pretended to want to do something semi-educational and visited the Air Museum at Pensacola's Naval Air Station.

Watch out Blue Angels, here they come!

Oh... how could I forget? What's a vacation without a visit to the emergency room? The little guy ran a fever of up to 103 - pneumonia was the culprit.

Jay and James in the local emergency room

After a healthy dose of antibiotics, and alternating Motrin and Tylenol, Jay was able to suit up and go out and enjoy the dolphin cruise.

James and Jay aboard the local Dolphin Finder boat (I can't remember the real name)

If this 6-month old could talk, he'd probably say "how long have we been out here in all of this water... I ain't seen a dolphin yet!"

It took a while, but we finally came upon a school of dolphins.

Overall, a very nice and relaxing vacation. We liked the place so much that we decided to do a bit of retirement house hunting. Whatta ya think? Should I scrape up a few million for this one?