Eye Opener

So, as I wrote about in my last post, we went to St. Augustine this weekend for Nick to present his paper.   (I am going to write all about it in my other blog: http://aboveallcatholic.blogspot.com/ .  I will try to keep this posting pertinent to the subject.)  After a friend recommended a great hostel there, we decided to make it an overnighter.  It is hard to find one room to fit all six of us if we are being completely honest while making reservations. 

***  As a side note, I am a pretty staunch believer in rules.  I haven't always been this way, and I don't always make the best choices, but I am trying.  Anyway, for me, if there is a rule, and I blatantly break it to make it more convenient for me, I am not sending the correct message to my kids.  Even if a rule is stupid in my opinion and I disagree with it, I still try to follow it, because I am pretty sure my kids think that some of my rules are stupid and they don't agree with them, but I expect them to follow them, so I must set the same example.  This has cost me in the past, and I am sure it will in the future, but I always try to be aware of what my kids are seeing, and let's face it, kids watch everything, and especially now that all of my kids are capable readers, there is no pulling one over on them.  If they read a sign that says "maximum occupancy 4" on a hotel room, and we have 6 of us in there, they are going to ask why we are doing the wrong thing.  This is just my personal opinion and my personal choice.  I am in no way judging you if you book a hotel room for a family larger than the room occupancy.  We've done it before too.  To me, it comes down to lying.  If I feel the need to go to confession after I've made a choice, then it probably wasn't the best choice to make.  ***

Anyway, my friend recommended the Pirate Haus Inn. It is a hostel that has family rooms also that have a queen bed and two sets of bunk beds.  I will tell more about it in my other blog, but it is really fun.  It is completely pirate themed, complete with a captain in pirate garb, and a free all you can eat pirate pancake breakfast. 

So, we all went and stayed overnight.  We arrived, checked in and went to dinner.  We had quite a wait to eat, since it was difficult to find a place within walking distance of our hostel that was family friendly.  We passed tons of pubs and lounges and bar and grill places, but most were not places where children were allowed, or where I felt comfortable bringing them.  Also, there is the family size, which most places were packed being a Friday night in St. Augustine.  Also, we don't eat meat on Friday's so that limited our choices.  We ended up at a seafood place.  As we waited, everywhere I looked people were on their phones.  People were sitting at tables (we waited outside since there was no place to sit inside to wait) with their phones texting while having conversations with their dinner companions), people walked around on them, people ignored the people they were with to focus on them. 

After a text conversation with a friend and a family member on the way there, I had put my phone on silent and stuck it in my purse.  As I waited and watched, it struck me that if I was still using facebook, I would probably be one of those people.  While sitting and waiting, with nothing to do, I would have pulled it out and maybe checked into the restaurant so everyone could see where I was, and looked around paying attention to everyone but my family.  My usual gap in time while waiting would be to pull out my phone.  Instead, I engaged in a great session of people watching with my girls.  It was great. 

We finally ate dinner and I did pull out the phone for the camera to take a horrible "selfie" of Hannah and myself.  We both agree not to post it.  We ate outside and there was live entertainment and we really enjoyed the dinner.  Still, people around us were on their phones, and I realized maybe for the first time how much I have potentially missed by my actions in the past.

Anyway, this was a recurring theme I saw throughout the whole weekend.  I did have sound on to wait for Nick to call when he was done presenting so we could link up again, but that was it.  It was fabulous.  It was funny, when we were waiting another time to be seated, the girls were finding ways to occupy their time.  They were giving each other spelling words, or math problems to solve, or even sentences to diagram.  (Because my kids are weird like that, lol.) I wonder how many opportunities I have missed to interact with them while passing idle time because I had my face stuck in my phone.  "Face" book indeed. 

We did end up visiting two shrines and the Cathedral of St. Augustine, and I did get lots of pictures, but I will post them on my other blog than on here, so I can try to keep the content of both blogs where I intended.  I hope you all had a great weekend too!