My Florida Vacation

We took many family trips to Florida when I was younger. My maternal grandparents spent the summer there every year, with some of my grandfather's family. We did the obligatory Disneyworld trips (which I am not going to write about!), but one of my favorite times was spent in St Pete's.

I don't remember all of the details, seeing as I was only about 6 years old, but I have a ton of pictures that my parents took, and every time I look at them, it jogs my memory.

There was a family that lived somewhere in the vicinity of my grandparents' condo, and they had a little girl around my age. I vaguely remember her boasting that she was older, but it was only by a few months. As we played the day away, on the lawn by the docks, someone in her family asked us if we would like to have our faces painted.

Would we? But of course!

I was under the impression we were getting a face painting like they did at fairs - a couple of balloons on your cheek, a shaky rainbow with only 3 colors, or simple yellow and black smiley face. Boy was I wrong!

By the time we were done, our hair was pulled back in ponytails, we had scarves wrapped around our heads to keep the little fly away hairs off our faces, and we looked like we just walked out of a circus. And not the Ringling Bros. Circus - oh no! More like an old French circus (whatever they might actually have been like), with our faces completely done up like old Harlequin (sp?) clowns.

It was amazing!

We spent the rest of the day running around with our painted faces, wearing our little polka dotted bikinis (yes we sang the song), catching itty-bitty fish off the dock, which our grandfathers helped us to hold up while we had our pictures taken.

It was truly magical.