Mayhem his Marco Island.

If Jeremy and I had brainstormed vacation destinations for a thousand years, I don't think we'd have come up with Marco Island, Florida.

In fact, South Florida is pretty much only on our radar, because of my aunt and uncle's place in Fort Myers and because we both really want to stay at the Breakers in Palm Beach.

One day.

Anyway, I'd have assumed we were too young, too Southern, and too not-wealthy for Marco Island.

Then, Jeremy sold his way into Allstate's Southeastern Honor Ring and with the victory came a trip to Marco. Suddenly, the place we'd never have thought of going to became the place we couldn't wait to see.

And, oh, my gosh, Y'all. Is it a place to see! The best way I can describe it is that it LOOKS like Maui. It doesn't feel like Maui. It's hotter. It doesn't smell of tropical flowers, and, to be honest, beach-wise, I thought the Gulf Coast was LAME (I prefer my beaches to have actual WAVES), but still, it's the only place I've ever been that I'd say is as beautiful as the South Pacific.

We had an outstanding trip. It got started with Freddie's first flight. It was Jones's second but the first he could remember. I had friends praying for him well before the trip. I knew he'd either LOVE it, or we'd be on ABC Nightly News - one of those families dragged off the plane because of the behavior of their inconsolable child.

And actually, that's kinda how it started to go down. Jones was doing GREAT in the airport - even getting through security didn't phase him. He played around the terminal and studied our plane through the wall of windows. The trouble started when it was time to walk down the jetway.

Then came his crazy.

Freddie, who, as expected, did AMAZINGLY well, and I were already on the plane. Jeremy was stuck with Jones, who wouldn't calm down, even though the pilot himself tried to welcome him on board. When he and Jeremy finally made their way to our seats on the very back row of the plane, Jones sat, screaming, beside me. I pulled out my phone and turned on an episode of "Mickey Mouse Clubhouse." That helped to calm him down, and before we were even off the ground, he was looking at me, saying, "I LIKE it!"

From then on, he was a MASTER flyer. In fact, as we deplaned after the second leg of the trip - Atlanta to Fort Myers - I bragged about how well he behaved on the flight. His response? Bowing at the waist and saying, "Thankyou.Thankyou.Thankyouverymuch."

Which one of you knuckleheads introduced him to Elvis?

We then got our rental car - a maroon Jeep Something or Other - and started the hour-ish drive to Marco Island. There's not much more than interstate between the two, so as soon as you see the palm-lined boulevards, it's hard not to be in awe of the island. We checked in to our room at the recently renovated JW Marriott.

It was a BEAUTIFUL room with a great view of one of the hotel's two pools. Jones's energetic response to seeing everything, however, was, "Oh, my GOODNESS! It's got a PHONE." Thankfully, it had TWO phones, because BOTH boys spent no small amount of time entertaining themselves with them.

That nite, we went to the Snook Inn. Since I've known him, Jeremy has talked about this place. It was a favorite of his Uncle Ronnie and "Antsy" (that's what Freddie calls "Aunt Nancy") when they had a place in Naples. That made deciding on dinner easy.

The next morning, we spent three hours as the only "crew" on a catamaran. It was absolutely amazing. After that, we had a little pool time and little nap time before going to a VERY hot dinner at a hole in the wall where parking was $25. I kid you not $25. The food itself wasn't even worth $25.

Our final day on Marco was spent on the beach first and, later, at the pool. The festivities concluded with the boys and I eating room service and watching "Thomas," while Jeremy went to the Gala Awards dinner just down the hall from our room.

After such a spectacular trip, I've told Jeremy that he needs to keep hitting those sales goals. Traveling on Allstate's dime is almost as fun as traveling on my daddy's used to be!