This weekend was a perfect 10. In many ways. First, it was probably the only weekend (and post) with an agenda. I mean a literal agenda of items. On the drive down to Panama City Eva was so excited about doing things that I suggested we make a list so we wouldn't forget anything. Hi Eva!
So here is the list. It's just some keywords, you have to be either me or Eva to fully get it (sorry, it was daddy/daughter weekend) but the list serves as the agenda for this entry. But I will do it chronologically, because it just got better along the way with Saturday being one of the best days ever with Eva. Nothing will compare to the days she and I spent alone in Hanoi, and of course there is the famous bike riding day in Napa this summer. But this weekend, especially Saturday, was truly special.
One of the early items was band practice. Me on guitar, Eva on kazoo. She was pretty good, but more interested in doing the three sounds of Baymax as he plugged his leaks with tape than she was playing San Francisco Blues by Eric Clapton. Taste changes with years I suppose.
One place Eva is mature beyond her years, however, is when playing school. This time she was Mrs. Plant, a substitute teacher. When I asked if Mrs. Plant was nicer or meaner than our regular teacher, she said she's basically the same. Maybe a bit nicer. A lot nicer, I'd say. Check out the feedback from my tests.
Eva requested pasta for dinner, staying and cooking. She loves to cook, although she didn't do a whole lot for dinner. Except eat (and play). Although she did invent a new thing for every meal. Doing a cheers with food on a fork. She figures, people cheers with glasses. Why not with food? Indeed.
So I forget how many things from the list we banged out on Friday night, but we both went to bed early in need of a refresh for the big next day. Which began with a breakfast, which is where Eva was shining cooking star. Breaking and beating the eggs, and also spooning out the avocado. This (and its partner the next morning) were two of the best breakfasts I've ever had in my life.
After breakfast, we hit the resort-ish activities. Hard. Table tennis. And real life chess (like Rotterdam). To Eva, her dad is a king. And she knocked down my king when she beat me in chess!
Of course the pool. One of the best pools ever. With lots of cool animals, including a Percy imposter.
Wait, it's not even lunch yet. We hit the beach. In addition to the October edition of the Beach News, with Eva Peloza, we collected a ton of boss shells, and took the obligatory picture of wave-jumper Eva.
Hard to believe, but it's still not lunch. So we hit the Wal-Mart to pick up some beads, string and various crafty supplies. Then lunch. OK, so after driving back and forth across Panama City and Panama City Beach, we head to Hunt's which is THE place for oysters. And as we arrived, they ran out. Literally, out of raw oysters. So we go over to Uncle Ernie's and they are out too. They tell us to go to Hunt's because they never run out. Well, I guess something was going on this weekend in PCB. We decided to stay and get the fried oysters. Very good. The pics below capture how the two of us owned this town this weekend.
And this one captures the way Eva adores her dad, and gorged this weekend. It was the longest she and I have ever been physically apart. Five and a a half weeks. The hour long Face Time calls are good but it doesn't replace this....
Drive all the back the length of PCB again to a place called Pier Park. To get the special braids and beads. I figured it was like a boardwalk. Turns out it's a giant mall complex. Somehow, we landed almost directly on the little stand that does hair wraps. So we go there. Here Eva poses with hers before the sunset cruise.
And what a cruise it was. Eva couldn't say enough about it, and I have to say I feel the same way. There was something special about this one. A big catamaran sailboat, we grab the beanbags on the mesh right at the front of the boat. And we lounge.
This next picture might be new favorite of Eva all time. It captures the way she was beaming for the whole trip.
We were lucky enough to see some dolphins. Look! Dolphins!
The calm of the waves and the breeze was only broken by...
... the feeling of rolling over the waves, hands up!
One final item. Gummy hot dog. OK, we didn't find any. But we found worms which would be mistaken for a hit dog (sans bun).
As I landed into ATL on the flight home, we flew into the same sunset Eva and I stared into last night. And I thought of her looking into the same sun tonight, from wherever she is. And in this moment, we can be together.
So here is the list. It's just some keywords, you have to be either me or Eva to fully get it (sorry, it was daddy/daughter weekend) but the list serves as the agenda for this entry. But I will do it chronologically, because it just got better along the way with Saturday being one of the best days ever with Eva. Nothing will compare to the days she and I spent alone in Hanoi, and of course there is the famous bike riding day in Napa this summer. But this weekend, especially Saturday, was truly special.
One of the early items was band practice. Me on guitar, Eva on kazoo. She was pretty good, but more interested in doing the three sounds of Baymax as he plugged his leaks with tape than she was playing San Francisco Blues by Eric Clapton. Taste changes with years I suppose.
One place Eva is mature beyond her years, however, is when playing school. This time she was Mrs. Plant, a substitute teacher. When I asked if Mrs. Plant was nicer or meaner than our regular teacher, she said she's basically the same. Maybe a bit nicer. A lot nicer, I'd say. Check out the feedback from my tests.
On to the drawing competition. You'd think it would have been formally folded into school as Art, but it followed closely behind. Percy Kearney Dercy was the judge for it, and I think she was a bit biased toward Eva. But it's hard to tell, because Eva is just that good. Here's a glass of juice.
Eva requested pasta for dinner, staying and cooking. She loves to cook, although she didn't do a whole lot for dinner. Except eat (and play). Although she did invent a new thing for every meal. Doing a cheers with food on a fork. She figures, people cheers with glasses. Why not with food? Indeed.
So I forget how many things from the list we banged out on Friday night, but we both went to bed early in need of a refresh for the big next day. Which began with a breakfast, which is where Eva was shining cooking star. Breaking and beating the eggs, and also spooning out the avocado. This (and its partner the next morning) were two of the best breakfasts I've ever had in my life.
After breakfast, we hit the resort-ish activities. Hard. Table tennis. And real life chess (like Rotterdam). To Eva, her dad is a king. And she knocked down my king when she beat me in chess!
Of course the pool. One of the best pools ever. With lots of cool animals, including a Percy imposter.
Wait, it's not even lunch yet. We hit the beach. In addition to the October edition of the Beach News, with Eva Peloza, we collected a ton of boss shells, and took the obligatory picture of wave-jumper Eva.
Hard to believe, but it's still not lunch. So we hit the Wal-Mart to pick up some beads, string and various crafty supplies. Then lunch. OK, so after driving back and forth across Panama City and Panama City Beach, we head to Hunt's which is THE place for oysters. And as we arrived, they ran out. Literally, out of raw oysters. So we go over to Uncle Ernie's and they are out too. They tell us to go to Hunt's because they never run out. Well, I guess something was going on this weekend in PCB. We decided to stay and get the fried oysters. Very good. The pics below capture how the two of us owned this town this weekend.
And this one captures the way Eva adores her dad, and gorged this weekend. It was the longest she and I have ever been physically apart. Five and a a half weeks. The hour long Face Time calls are good but it doesn't replace this....
Drive all the back the length of PCB again to a place called Pier Park. To get the special braids and beads. I figured it was like a boardwalk. Turns out it's a giant mall complex. Somehow, we landed almost directly on the little stand that does hair wraps. So we go there. Here Eva poses with hers before the sunset cruise.
And what a cruise it was. Eva couldn't say enough about it, and I have to say I feel the same way. There was something special about this one. A big catamaran sailboat, we grab the beanbags on the mesh right at the front of the boat. And we lounge.
This next picture might be new favorite of Eva all time. It captures the way she was beaming for the whole trip.
We were lucky enough to see some dolphins. Look! Dolphins!
The calm of the waves and the breeze was only broken by...
... the feeling of rolling over the waves, hands up!
The cruise was two hours, and it was some of the best time Eva and I have ever had. I would just stare at her, she was beaming. And then she'd look at me, beaming and ask why I was looking at her. I just said that I loved to see her happy. I would do anything to see this girl happy. As we wound down the cruise we stared off in the sunset, and Eva (with some help) captured the sun in her hand.
One final item. Gummy hot dog. OK, we didn't find any. But we found worms which would be mistaken for a hit dog (sans bun).
Sunday is just a dip in the pool. Well, she also invested a new game called Trust in Numbers Circle. it goes like this. One person holds a wooden spoon, facing in and asks the other to guess the number. No matter what they guess, it's wrong. They we connect the soles of our feet, and the person guesses again. When the feet are connected, the guess is always right. Then on the drive back she invented double-sided butter knives, after finding two butter knives in the back seat of the rental car (?). It might be new first business venture. On the drive back we decided to head to Monk's to share some nachos. I don't know if Eva said she wanted to go to Monk's because she thought I did, but she probably did. We just connected this weekend like we never have before. Part of it was the time apart, but it felt like more than that.
As I landed into ATL on the flight home, we flew into the same sunset Eva and I stared into last night. And I thought of her looking into the same sun tonight, from wherever she is. And in this moment, we can be together.
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