Continued

At the top of the first flight, we saw that the next set of stairs was even higher. A lady behind us said, "Try counting them to pass the time. There are 205 steps." Was that meant to be encouraging"  Amazingly, Little Lady climbed 180 steps, and my pregnant wife was able to keep up at Little Lady's conveniently slow pace. I had to carry one of them up the remaining 25 steps (no, not my wife!), where I dumped the stroller and picnic basket so we all could catch our breath." 

Vacation Adventure Lesson #2: It's amazing what you can do when you try, and it's more than amazing what some people will try.

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Family fun in a toddler's ocean - "Our vacation was also the first chance for Little Lady to swim. We placed the water wings on her arms and stayed really close. This suited her just fine for almost three minutes. Then she wanted to swim "all alone" (her favorite words)."You might have heard that the biggest danger for a new swimmer is sinking. Or hitting your head on the edge of the pool. Or developing cramps from too many French fries just before swimming and drowning in your own cholesterol (or something like that)."  In fact, the big danger is a big mouth. Little Lady closed her mouth whenever I reminded her. But just 3.2 seconds later, her mouth would be open again, shouting "Lookit me!" and "I did it!" and other eloquent cries muffled by the gurgle of water pouring into a gaping mouth." 

Vacation Adventure Lesson #3: Sometimes it is worth getting excited about life and shouting it out to the world ... even if people do keep telling you to shut your mouth.