The other day, Hubby and I spent a few hours at Big Kahuna’s to watch Younger Son in action. Younger Son has a summer job as a life guard, and one of his perks is getting his family into the park for free. Up until now, when the season is almost over, we haven’t had the opportunity to take advantage of this great benefit, although we have spent endless hours driving to and from Destin for his job.

After being berated for not having Younger Son to the park by 7 a.m. last Saturday so he could earn extra money and have his choice of work areas, we made the sacrifice to have him to work by 9:30. Then we foolishly thought we could have a nice breakfast and get back to the park after 10, when it opened. My mouth watered at the thought of a good breakfast at the Donut Hole until we drove past and saw the line to get in snaking out into the parking lot. Stupid us—thinking we could just waltz into a restaurant on a Saturday morning in Destin in the middle of the tourist season.

We turned around and headed back to Chick-fil-A, which wasn’t much better. After nearly getting rammed in the parking lot by an impatient driver who decided against going through the long drive-through line and decided to get into our line while we were still in it, we finally found a parking place. The parking place was in the worst possible spot to get out of the parking lot because

the long line of cars coming from both the drive-through and the parking lot had to go past our spot to exit. But we managed to park and make it inside, which was only slightly less crowded than the Donut Hole. Now I remember why we never eat in Destin.

We finally made it back to Big Kahunas. Hubby spotted Younger Son sitting at a life guard station at the lazy river. He waved enthusiastically to get Younger Son’s attention, then realized it wasn’t Younger Son. I pretended not to know Hubby. We found Younger Son over in the shallow end of a kids’ area, wading through the water looking official. Of course, he ignored us.

“Pretend you’re drowning and make him save you,” said Hubby.

“In the kiddie pool?” I didn’t think that idea would work. Besides, Younger Son would probably just let me drown.

Eventually, Younger Son got transferred to speeds, which is the set of three fast slides that dump people into six feet of water in which they have to swim out. It is amazing how many people who can’t swim go down these slides, despite the warnings posted. I guess people who can’t swim also can’t read. This is the station where Younger Son gets all his “saves.” Not that he gets paid more for saves, but it does break up the monotony of sitting in his life guard stand watching the water. Hubby and I took up vigil across from where Younger Son sat, hoping to catch him in action. We almost felt guilty just waiting for someone to be dumped into the deep water and flounder so we could watch Younger Son jump in and save them. Hubby had the cell phone camera poised and ready to record.

We had to wait a while. I did get to witness the astonishing number of people who “doggy paddled” out of the water, but at least they didn’t sink. Finally, we got to see Younger Son do his stuff. A girl bobbed up once after coming down the slide, then went under. Younger Son stood, blew his whistle, and jumped into the water, getting her to safety. Of course, Hubby didn’t get the video started on time, so we missed the spectacular jump. Rats! We waited several more minutes and were rewarded with another save, although, once again, Hubby missed the jump. But at least we recorded the saves, so we have proof that Younger Son is actually earning his paycheck. Too bad he doesn’t earn any bonuses for the saves. It might pay for all the tolls across the Mid-bay bridge.