Separation Anxiety

My husband and I, with our daughter in tow, dropped off our son at a naval leadership course in St. Pete. He will be there all this week.

We parked the truck and our son grabbed his bags and before I could tell him goodbye, good luck and give him a quick kiss, a Drill Instructor yelled for him to double-time it and get in line.

My son is the second in line.

I am suffering a bit from separation anxiety, which is unlike me. My son has been away from home before. I know why this is happening...it is because my son will turn 16 while he is gone. He has never been away from home on his birthday. The fact that I was unable to kiss him goodbye also factors heavily in my separation anxiety. He will probably be too busy and tired by the end of the day to even remember his birthday. The leadership course is a very demanding one, both physically and mentally. We will celebrate his birthday when he comes home next weekend after graduating from the course. I am eager to hear all about his week and see how this experience has impacted him.

It was still early after we dropped our son off so we decided to do a little sightseeing in St. Pete. We drove to Treasure Island. In the early 1900's two property owners wanted to sell some land so they "discovered" a couple of wooden chests on the beach supposedly filled with "treasure" which generated interest in the area and the name stuck.

We also went to the Pier and had lunch in the Columbia Restaurant. Delicious. After lunch we walked around the area.

Here are some of the things we saw.

The Floating Chapel. It is available for weddings.