Life

Fire Ants. Monday morning we woke up and headed to the Placida Seafood Festival. We had always just missed it in past years so I was looking forward to going although Bill said it wasn't much. We parked in a grassy field and waited for the cars to go by on the street near the festival. That's when Henry started screaming. I was holding his hand and looked down to see ants all over his feet and shoes. Unfortunately he was wearing Crocs and if you have ever seen a pair you know they have holes in them. I started swatting the ants away and Sarah worked on the other foot. Henry was yelling bloody murder and crying and then I started getting bit. Not a pleasurable experience.

We went to the First Aid tent and the lady there told us that he should be taken to the emergency room. They didn't have anything for ant bites or stings but several people walking by did. Henry was kinda in shock at this point but he wasn't crying any longer. A guy with the EMS came by and I was walking back to take Henry somewhere to get some strong salve when he told me not to get too worried about it. He said to watch him to make sure there were no allergic reactions and to put some ice on his feet to keep down the swelling. So we stayed at the festival. The ice and sting wipes kept the bites from swelling but Henry wanted to be carried the rest of the time.

We walked around a bought a couple crabs in the crab race. Unfortunately we didn't win but I bought a nice sailor's flag belt for $15. Henry eventually walked, albeit on his tiptoes. It was hilarious, he was tiptoeing around looking for more ants.

A few days later, I counted the red marks and there were over 40 bites. Henry was really a brave little boy in the end though, I was proud of him and relieved that he wasn't allergic to ants. Had Sarah been bitten, we would likely have been at the hospital with her low threshhold for pain.

On the way home, we stopped by the Stump Pass Grille, or the Tiki Bar as we call it (Henry calls it the Tinki Bar). It's on Lemon Bay and is nice, live music, pitchers of beer, etc. They had a ring game that Henry loved playing, a ring on the end of a fishing line that you swing and try to hook on a hook. Our last day in Florida, Henry hooked it 15 times. I registered a total of 2 and we went to the Tiki Bar four times. http://www.stumppassgrille.com/