A Midwestern family shakes it up with stingrays, sharks and outdoor showers

Today’s Summertime Rewind is brought to us by guest writer Andrea. I met Andrea when I worked at a newspaper in Missouri. We were on the copy editing staff together, which is absolutely as wild and adventurous as it sounds.

Andrea is a trivia buff who enjoys raw radishes; throws wacky, themed parties; runs for fun; and compiles the most all-encompassing yearly family report I’ve ever seen. (Seriously. It’s one of the highlights of my Christmas card season.) She lives in Missouri with her husband Jake and their baby Finn.

My family was a Branson family. By this I mean that we vacationed in Branson, Mo., every year. Sometimes more than once a year, in fact. If you’ve never been to Branson, it might help to think of it as Nashville for old people. (At least that’s how it seemed from approximately 1988 to 1999. I hear it’s changed a lot since then.) And if you don’t even know what Branson is, it’s a touristy city in southern Missouri that’s a big draw to country music fans. And old people.

I’m not trying to offend any Branson fans. In fact, until I reached the why-would-I-spend-any-more-time-with-my-family-than-I-have-to phase in my teenage years, I enjoyed our Branson trips tremendously. Couldn’t wait to go; didn’t want to come home. I have so many wonderful family memories from those trips.

But one of my best childhood memories is the first real vacation we took to somewhere other than Branson. When I was 10, my mom, my younger sister and I drove to Sanibel Island, Fla., with another mother and her daughter –- our good friends. My dad had to stay home to work. (Note that last sentence. It will come into play later.)

It was amazing! It was my first time seeing the ocean (actually it was the Gulf of Mexico, but we Midwesterners don’t understand that distinction), my first time finding seashells on the beach, my first time fearing (and hoping) I might see a shark.

We stayed in a house –- owned by our fellow traveler’s dad –- and there was a pool in the back, so when we weren’t swimming in the ocean (ahem, the Gulf), we were swimming in the pool. We rode rusty old bikes all around the island. We looked for alligators (that sounds crazy in writing) and actually saw some. We saw dolphins too. All these things were so different from my usual vacationing activities.

Here are a few more of the many highlights of my Florida trip:

The house we stayed in had an outdoor shower. This blew my 10-year-old mind.

Sanibel Island is known for having lots of sting rays. Therefore, people do what’s called the “Sanibel shuffle” while they’re entering or otherwise walking around in the water. Basically it means you shuffle your feet in the sand to scare the sting rays away rather than stepping on one. And, boy, is it fun.

Remember how my dad had to stay home to work? Well, my mom informed me one day that we would be going to the airport to watch the planes take off and land. I’d never been on a plane, so I thought this sounded like a fantastic idea. If I were older and wiser, I would have thought it was a ridiculous idea. Anyhow, after one plane landed, my mom said we should watch the people who were exiting the plane. Lo and behold, my dad stepped off the plane! I don’t think I had been that surprised in my entire decade of life.

I loved playing in the waves, particularly jumping around and diving under them. I did this over and over and over again. Keep in mind that this was in about 3 feet of water. I guess I got complacent because I forgot not to dive straight down. Consequently, I slammed my face into the sand and ended up with scrapes and sores on my forehead, nose and chin. I just realized I probably shouldn’t have included this in the highlights list. Oh, well.

With my scraped-up face and all, our trip to Florida opened my eyes to the wider world. And that’s a good thing for anyone.