We had a nice time at the bay until the escaped convict made us close up shop and head back to Gulf Terrace.

Our day at the bay had been very short on Wednesday because of a thunderstorm that swiftly crossed the bay in our direction.

Friday, though, featured perhaps the greatest hermit crab race of all time. This was our third or fourth annual hermit crab race at the bay. Danny reported 24 crabs. The average size was much larger than previous years, most crabs about the size of golf ball according to Nicole.

The reason we had so many large crabs was that on Wednesday we had discovered that a stump and roots on the edge of the water had a heavy population of large hermit crabs. Most of the crabs were in the usual snail shell. Nicole found the largest conch-shaped shell.

Kathy, however, found the largest hermit crab since Cashin hermit-crab records have been kept. After the race, all of us crawled about 100 yards out into the shallow waters of the bay. I crawled on my back with my hands behind me and my knees up and feet in front of me. I was Kelly’s water camel.

Kathy went back in to get a float and as she was walking away she yelled “WOW! THIS IS THE BIGGEST HERMIT CRAB I’VE EVER SEEN.” Kathy brought over a cup-cake size (her measurement) snail shell with a large clawed hermit crab inside.

Later I took a picture of “Cupcake” in Kelly’s bucket. I put my ring in the picture to indicate the size. This will be important as I try each year to find a larger hermit crab than Cupcake.

Nicole and I bought [the book] Jurassic Park in Destin. Nicole was asking me some questions about a part she had read. This lead to a discussion between me, Danny, and Nicole about time and God.

Danny asked the question: “How did God make his parents?” I told him that he could go to Notre Dame and base an entire course on that question.

The next day at the pool a lady came up to me and Kathy and said what nice children we had. The kids were sitting around the table under the umbrella, finishing lunch. Nicole was reading Jurassic Park.

“How old is your older girl?” the lady asked. She thought that Nicole was awfully smart to be 10 years old and reading Jurassic Park. “That’s got DNA and such in it!”

I’m not sure if Nicole’s reading Jurassic Park made all three of our kids good, or if Danny and Kelly had done good things on their own. I didn’t ask.

We bought tickets at the race track. Danny and Nicole picked three rides each. Both wanted to do bumper cars and the big race track. Nicole wanted to do the bungee-tramp and Danny wanted to do the kiddie race track.

Kelly and I watched Nicole ride in one bumper car and Danny and Kathy ride in another.

As I watched, I thought that bumper cars revealed the personality of each driver. Nicole probably traveled a greater distance than any other driver. She looked for gaps and open spaces trying to avoid hitting anyone. That’s Nicole. Trying to avoid conflict even in bumper cars. I could almost hear her apologizing as she nudged her way through the pack of cars. However, as soon as she spotted Danny, she rammed him full speed again and again, laughing loud and hard. She repeated her attacks, driving Danny crazy because he was busy trying to get on with his own plans. That’s Nicole, too, beating a dead horse. But she was having fun.

Danny didn’t travel much distance at all. He was too busy trying to bump in to every car around him. The name of the game was bumper cars, and he was bound and determined to do his best bumping. You’ll never know Danny is having fun by looking at his face. He wears the same face whether he is up at bat, running with a football, or driving a bumper car. He sticks his jaw out and furrows his brow with a very serious expression. But he was having fun, too.

Now Kathy is competitive by nature. And being a more intelligent driver than Danny or Nicole, she understands that you’ve got to work somewhere between Danny’s maximum bpm (bumps per minute) approach and Nicole’s fast and bump-free approach. You’ve got to get up speed in order to get in hard bumps. Hard bumps are the key, and the best are when you can strike someone unaware. So Kathy couldn’t resist grabbing the wheel a few times and getting Danny out of a spinning cluster and aim the car for some unsuspecting driver. I had to yell at her once and say “They’re Danny’s tickets!” That’s Kathy, getting caught having too much fun.

Kelly sat on the side rail in awe of all the motion, lights, music, and the sizzling sparks on the ceiling where the electricity passed from the wire mesh to the poles on the cars. The smell of ozone was strong. She had fun watching.

And of course, I had fun analyzing the whole thing. That’s me.

Danny called me at work tonight to ask when I would be coming home. He reported that Kelly was standing up.

Today was library day. Between the heat and Nicole and Danny’s refusal to join a neighborhood gang, Kathy is suffering with her trapped children. She has been reading a book on starting a desktop publishing business. I think she is looking for an escape.

In two weeks we go to Destin. I think Kathy is looking forward most to our vacation. She needs to get away from summer vacation.