This weekend was filled with surprises on so many levels. We were up around 4 on Sunday morning, out by 5ish after the negative pregnancy test, having to turn around to get the camera I forgot. The drive was smooth and beautiful. No traffic, only a little bickering when Shawn wouldn't listen to my directions, and a dark orange sun hanging huge and low in the sky. Patches of fog here and there and condensation issues on the window. We talked about maybe going to Sea World for Shawn's birthday.

We got to the beach around 8:30 to find a spot with tons of time on the meter. We laid out, listened to the waves, watched the crabs tossing sand out of their holes. They were really cute. I found a baby crab crawling up my arm at one point, too.

Then Shawn was up and looking out at the ocean and there were fins above the waves. Beautiful glistening fins and backs of dophins, swimming on the top of the water. It was amazing to watch the two groups, one of two, one of three, swim by so quickly and gracefully. It took my breath away. I've never, in all my years of being a beach bunny, seen dolphins close enough to the shore to tell what they were. And they were very close to the shore. It felt like a gift.

By around 10 we were getting hot and the dolphins were gone, so we drove back over the causeway to check on the art festival, stop at 7-11 and change, then back to Starbucks on the beach to wait for Lin since our meeting place was demolished. My phone kept not ringing but I was watching for missed calls, so I think (hope?) I called her back pretty quickly. We popped into Starbucks for some shaken tea (and a bagel for Shawn), then off to the festival.

The art festival itself was pretty lousy. The spring one, at least before, was twice the size and had, you know, art. This one had some nice pieces, but they were interspersed between mostly craft-stuff and things like fish playing billiards. I did keep a few business cards - one for a guy who makes japanese fountains, one for some wooden bangles, and one for some coasters, though I lost the one for the bangles. (edit: I found it in with my credit cards. Doh.)

We were dying of heat so we popped into a candle shop that had some giant windchimes. And then later into a chocolate/ice cream shop that was really neat and had wonderful lemonade. After the festival we grabbed lunch at Olive Garden, then wandered around Barnes & Noble and Best Buy.

It was a really great day. Lin is amazing. I was so completely not nervous around her which is very rare for me. Maybe next time we'll drag her to the outlet mall so we can watch her go nuts in Banana Republic.

After all of that, we were beat, so we took some time driving to look at the new mall in Viera. It's huge. I can't wait until we actually get to walk it. Shawn got his wings at Frankie's, I got a fried cheesecake - the warm cheesecake filling was good, the rest was enh.

We got to Sue's around 11, crashed, got woken up at around 2:30 by my cousin peeking around the corner with a can of pepper spray. Come to find out Jasmin & Celest forgot we were going to be crashing there and almost called the cops on us. Yikes!

The next morning we ran to Atlanta Bread (yum, Atlanta Bread) for breakfast and use their WiFi, then to Wild Oats to check out what a little one looks like. I got some Teas Tea, Pure Green which I really liked. We stopped at Best Buy in Vero and picked up the Smashing Pumpkins Greatest Hits CD. I found out I'd started when I stopped in the bathroom, which was really rough, even after the negative pregnancy test.

Then we went back to Winter Beach to wait for Sue to come home - I knitted, Shawn played with his Game Boy. Then everyone took me out to birthday dinner, which was really, really nice. I think everyone had a pretty good time, other than Shawn & I getting attacked by mosquitoes on the way there.

In the morning we had chai and Sue made Shawn some breakfast burritos. Once she left for work, we left for home, with plans to pick up pizza on the way. That's when things broke loose, really. We'd been holding in all the disappointment of a failed cycle, plus I didn't take my Effexor on time in all the packing and driving (and Shawn not stopping for milk), and we ended up in the worst fight we've had in a couple years. It passed, like they all do, and on the way home we called the RE and found out we get another Clomid cycle before the HSG, which made things a little better.

Overall, it was a really great trip, but we are also very happy to be home.