I’m here! West Palm Beach, Florida. I came for the AYSO national soccer tournament because my granddaughter is playing on a team. This has been a gargantuan effort – fund-raising over $30,000 so the team could participate. In AYSO, all the money must be donated; parents are not allowed to pay their kid’s expenses. That gives everyone an opportunity to attend. For example, if my daughter wanted to put in the money for Sarah, she couldn’t – she’d have to make a donation to the team. It’s a good, fair system but it’s been so much work! My daughter is team mom, my son-in-law is a coach, and I am the grandmother. Which is not an official position.
My flights were not crowded at all so luckily I had rows all to myself. Look at this spectacular view from the airplane.
This was a long long day – travel day. The next day was soccer registration and opening ceremonies, which I opted out of along with three of my grandkids. It was a good decision – I guess they sat for hours in the sun and humidity. A soccer tournament here in the summer is insane.
Cities put in bids to hold the tournaments, and I don’t think the AYSO selection committee thought about things like heat exhaustion, heat stroke, humidity, temps with a real feel of 111. In a couple of years the tournament will be in Tennessee. What happened to the northern climates, like Washington or Oregon? Seriously, this is insane for real, not to mention dangerous. You can’t call it fun for the refs and coaches and parents who worked so hard to get here. Yesterday, one of our girls had heat exhaustion and she kept saying, no, she just didn’t feel well. We are Californians. We don’t know about that (although Bakersfieldians should).
I know about that, however, having suffered heat exhaustion three times. By the fourth time, I knew enough about what was coming to cut short my activity. ( That was the Unal Trail hike I did recently, by myself.) What I was saying wasn’t getting through, however. If you haven’t exerted yourself in this kind of climate, it’s hard to know exactly how careful you must be.
But Sophie, Joe, Daxton and I had a great day doing some sightseeing. We hit three beaches and greyhound races. I’ve never seen dogs race and everyone said go, go, it’s fantastic. I suppose it is in some ways, but I hate to see animals used like that. In one race a dog tripped, and if it hadn’t gotten right up the day would have been ruined. I didn’t really like seeing dogs running around a track while old men sat around working on their wagering picks.
The track had signs around urging adoption of greyhounds, but I don’t think that compensates for forcing the dogs to race. My sister has recently adopted two former racing greyhounds. Beautiful animals.
The blur on the left is the dogs starting the race. There were two old men sitting near us, and listening to them talk I thought, these guys belong in a movie. They would be perfectly cast in so many films.
Anyway, it was an experience. But the beaches!
Look at the colors of the ocean! Couldn’t believe it. This is Ocean Reef Beach in West Palm Beach.
We all just walked right into the water – it’s 82 degrees! I love the warm Atlantic.
We were so lucky to be at a drawbridge when it opened It’s the first time the kids had seen one and I always enjoy it. Heck, I enjoy just about anything. Except heat and humidity. But I knew what I was getting into when I said, “Hey, I’d love to go!” So no real complaints.
Back at the hotel to recover from the morning, Dax and Joseph had fun with ice cream. Sophie took a nap.
We headed out for more beaches, this time to Dubois Park.
The kids were standing still, waiting to see how far their legs would sink. Of course, being a worried grandma, I remembered reading about how someone died from being “buried” at the beach – you know, something everyone does, getting covered with sand so only your head sticks out. But sometimes the sand can create strong suction and you can’t get the person out fast enough. I had to go over this in my mind several times, how they were just standing there and it wasn’t the same thing at all.
To get to our third beach, we drove down this gorgeous street.
This town isn’t called Palm Beach for nothing.
We did lots of driving around and saw some very big, probably very beautiful homes. The reason I say probably very beautiful was because we couldn’t see them. This is the land of giant hedges. This next picture is not a giant hedge but certainly an unusual one. The building was so exclusive that it just had an address, barely visible.
I was determined that we would eat dinner on the waterfront and knew if I drove long enough we’d find something. Just as I was about to give up, we did find something. I’m not sure we were in the best area (ok, we weren’t) but the food was good enough.
End of Day One. Just about any day I spend with my grandkids is a good one, but it was cool to be in a place exotic to all of us. Even if it was humid and hot.
Coming soon: more beaches.
That sounds and looks like so much fun! You look relaxed and rested and happy in your picture on the beach! Something that I picked up on was your mention of Sophie requesting her alone time, and you just took it in stride. Is that an acceptable thing in your family? (I just got back from a family reunion, 19 of us, and when I tried to go off and read a book in the other room by myself, I was told I was being “exclusive”, whatever that means…) Apparently not everybody needs alone-time in their life?
Anyway, I hope you have a wonderful time in Florida. Shoo those rain clouds away!
My girls used to play ASA Fastpitch Softball… I like the idea of how they worked the team donation to make it equitable for all to be able to go. ASA should think of doing that… sounds like you all had fun! Tournaments are fun and always seem to be hot… never had the humidty though (in the western states)