Tybee Island Adventure, Day 7

[Composed 8/5/2021]

We started our day with a dolphin cruise. Driving to the boat launch I noticed some whitecaps in the bay and worried that the water may be too rough for the kids. Fortunately, I was wrong; the kids had a blast.

We had a chill cruise around the Tybee Island beach area and saw countless dolphins. The kids perched themselves at the front of the boat for the ideal view of the surroundings and we took turns shouting "dolphin!" whenever they had a sighting.

We also got up close to the Cockspur Island Lighthouse, which is Georgia's smallest lighthouse. The narrator on the boat kept up a pretty constant stream of commentary which everyone enjoyed.

Tomorrow ends our vacay, so we used the afternoon to do some much needed cleanup. The house and car looked like a Toy store exploded with Legos, Pokemon and other fun-related detritis everywhere. To the kids' credit, they didn't complain and picked everything up; I was truly amazed.

After cleaning up, I had wanted to go explore the nearby Tybee Beach Pier but after days of threatening, the rain finally showed up. For the last four days, every morning's forecast looked the same: the day was supposed to be filled with rain. Yet, the rain kept pushing back giving us an opportunity to do whatever activity we had planned. Our luck finally ran out today. But I was prepared!

I busted out some Shrinky Dinks and the kids had a blast creating jewelry, keychains and other odds and ends. I have vague memories of making Shrinky Dinks as a kid, and I'm delighted to report that the activity holds up quite well. What's nice about them is that everyone can put in as much effort as they want into coloring the various creations. The only catch is that we had to shrink them in the regular oven versus the toaster oven, so the kids weren't able to get a good view of the process. Still, it was a delightful activity for all.

We spent the rest of the afternoon playing games, watching for lightning from the storms that passed through and taking in more of the Olympics. Specifically, we watched the various forms of Karate that were making their debut. It was a chill way to close out our trip and rest up before the exhausting travel day ahead of us.