Florida or bust!

Well, our trip began last Saturday at 6:00AM when we loaded up the kids into the car and took off from W. Palm Beach FL, in search of sunshine and warmer weather. We drove to Statesville N.C. the first night and stayed at a Courtyard by Marriott. The guy that checked us in practically peed himself when he realized we were family and even said that Gillian favored Cheryl. LOL! We got a good chuckle out of that.

So, quiz time...what was going on in Florida, on the East Coast at about 4PM? That would be correct, the Daytona 500. We were thankfully saved by a pot hole that I believe God put there just for us to get through the area and not hit traffic. We made it to Cheryl's sister's by 6:30PM and got ready to hunker down for the night. Katie freaked out when she saw palm tree's and Gillian was actually in a pretty good mood.

On Monday we went to the mall to pick up another air mattress for Gillian as the one we had, had a slow leak in it. They had a Naartjie store there and I had to shop there. I had never been on one and it was soooo cool. We got some errands done and just went back to the house to chill out and recover from the ride down.

On Tuesday, Cheryl's sister took the girls to a game place for the day and Cheryl and I went to Vero Beach to visit friends of ours from church who winter down there. We had a nice lunch and then went to the beach and walked in the sand and had some ice cream. Then we headed back South to Candi's (Cheryl's sister) and the older folks (Cheryl, Gillian and Candi) went to a movie and I stayed back with Katie and put her to bed and went to bed myself.

On Wednesday we went to the beach to have lunch with one of Cheryl's nephew and then went to Lion Safari, where we were treated to all kinds of animals wandering around our car. They had some rides that the kids went on and then we went back to Candi's before heading out to her friend's horse farm, where both Katie and Gillian rode Cheyanne. They loved it. Home for dinner and bed!

Got up early on Thursday to head to Sawgrass Recreational Park and went on one of the Everglade tours in those cool air boats. We saw one alligator sunning himself, but the rest, according to the guide were under water because it was so cold. Oh, did I mention that it never got above 70 the whole time we were there? BRRRRR! While at the Recreation park, the kids got to hold reptiles and other gross things. Lots of pics were taken, I just need to DL them here. Most of them were put up on Facebook.

On Friday we were up at the crack 'O dawn to trek home. It was a long ride. I am crippled, but we made it there and back. I can say in all honesty that I will never drive to FL again. Ever. When we were about 45 minutes from Candi's house the girls were so horrible that I turned around and yelled, "Keep your hands to yourself and shut the fuck up!" Then Cheryl started laughing.....but only until we started down Candi's street and there was this circle thing we had to go around in the middle of the road and she said, "Who the fuck puts circles in the middle of the road?" and this from a person who doesn't generally swear! LOL! I do have to say that I95 brought out quite a lot of swearing from my normally docile wife.

So, it was a fun trip and sunny. Just not as warm as I wished!

Love,
Wendy