All Things Wise and Wonderful: July 2011

The past several months have been a whirlwind, and I am hoping that where my memory doesn't serve me, my photos will.

In the middle of July, we had some very welcome visitors from Saint Louis, my cousin Brian, his wife Mary, and their awesome children, Ben and Emily. It was the first time that they all got to meet Layla (in fact, the last time that I saw them all was at our wedding in 2007!) We had a barbecue in our backyard on a gorgeous evening. Layla had so much fun playing and swimming with her second cousins.

The following day, I took the kids down to Avon By The Sea to meet up with my cousins and my uncle Tony and aunt Rose. It was the day before we left on our road trip, so I was glad to have the opportunity to spend one more day with my out-of-state family!

Despite the fact that I was past the halfway mark of my pregnancy, Monte and I decided that we couldn't let the summer go by without a visit to our favorite city, Saint Augustine, FL. At the end of July, we packed up the car and left in the evening, in the hopes that Layla would sleep for a good portion of the ride down. Monte was a trooper, and drove the bulk of the trip, fueled on black coffee and gas station snacks! Being able to eat junk is one of the things I most look forward to our long car rides, and this, in conjunction with my pregnancy cravings, made the trip a total gorgefest.

Our first stop was Daytona Beach, where we stayed a few nights at The Shores Resort and Spa. Located right on the beach, this was a beautiful hotel with easy access to the beach, a huge pool, firepits for evening s'mores-making, and kiddie activities. Unfortunately, there wasn't much of anything to do in Daytona Beach. At night, it was a ghost town, with eerie vacant lots and more closed for business signs than I expected for a beach community. If only the Shores was located in friendly Saint Augustine, it would have been the perfect vacation!

After a few nights, we made the short drive north to Saint Augustine and checked in to the Holiday Isle Oceanfront Resort. Monte and I had stayed that this hotel in the 2006 and actually regretted not staying there in 2010, when we met up with Monte's sister and her family. It has a great pool and beach front access, plus a tiki bar that serves icy drinks and a quick lunch. In the past year, the management has changed and I am sad to say that the place has gone downhill. We made the most of our time there, though, and all in all in was an enjoyable vacation.

From an allergy standpoint, there were two big eye openers that occurred that made me realize just how difficult it is to travel with a food allergy. The first happened immediately upon arrival to the resort in Daytona Beach. When we opened our room, we realized that there was a mini bar that was absolutely filled with nut products! After making a phone call to the front desk, an employee came to the room to address my concern. I asked if the products could be removed from the room, which I thought was a reasonable request. We were told that they couldn't accommodate me, but they would put a lock on the cabinet. This was an inconvenience, as the cabinet also contained the refridgerator, so we needed to lock and unlock it every time we wanted to get Layla's rice milk, a drink, etc.

The second negative experience that we had was at dinner at A1A, one of our favorite restaurants in Saint Augustine. The menu claims to be very allergy-friendly, listing the Top 8 allergens in each dish, along with a disclaimer to notify staff if any patrons have food allergies. We felt pretty confident when we ordered Layla chicken fingers, fries and a fruit salad for dinner. We had our waiter check that they didn't use any nut oil in the fryer and that they notified the chef of her nut and dairy allergies. Unfortunately, Layla broke out in hives all over her face after her first bite of food. The manager came out to assist us and although they didn't have any Benedryl on site, they told me where I could get some. I washed Layla's face and she cleared up within about 30 minutes without any other problems. After talking with the manager, we came to realize that they didn't have a dedicated fryer for french fries and that the oil had not been changed after frying shellfish. This was completely an error on my part, because I didn't tell them about her potential fish allergy. Needless to say, it was a scary dining experience. The restaurant was great, they wrapped my food (I couldn't eat, I was too worried) and took off over half of the bill. They showed a lot of concern for Layla, and it honestly wasn't their fault.

On the way home from Florida, we made an overnight stop in North Carolina. The next morning, we went to the Smithsonian Zoo in Washington D.C. I was dying to have one more special experience with Layla before our vacation was over. Layla loved the lions and tigers (oh my!).