Destin: By the Numbers

Kate's Vacation, a Top 10 list:

• Ten hours of driving each way (counting gas fill-ups, snack breaks, and bathroom stops).
  
• Nine Dramamine consumed to keep me from puking in the car. It worked. I didn't have to get out my Handy-Saks (read: puke bags) even once!
  
• Eight episodes of Coast to Coast during the drive, including information about green children, children's memories of past lives, weather manipulation conspiracies, and the lady who telepathically talks to alien ambassadors from Zeta Reticuli.
  
• Seven souvenirs for friends (two t-shirts, two magnets, one lighter, one set of Destin-emblazoned golf balls and a pair of shoes).
  

• Six sandpipers who were brave enough to let us watch them splash around in the waves. (Man, were they cute!)
  
• Five bucks for the Monkey Mochas Paul brought me each day from Bad Ass.
  
• Four days on the beach, floating in really cold water with Pablo.
  
• Three pots of tea with my mother and grandmother at Magnolia & Ivy, where we were encouraged to dress up in vintage hats, fur stoles, and gloves that came up nearly to our shoulders. (Stay tuned for pics.)
  
• Two trips to Fudpuckers, one of which included a particularly nice encounter with Nasty Nachos.
  
• One toll-booth operator who dispensed three minutes of marital advice to Pablo and me before he'd let us through the toll gate.
• One ginormous jellyfish that scared the bejeezus out of me. I made a hasty escape before the damn thing killed me. (P.S. That link goes to a kid's school report on jellyfish. It's pretty cute.)
• One necklace made in the car on the way home with beach-colored beads from Garden of Beadin'.
• And one palmetto bug — that's an all-time low for a Florida vacation!