Road Trip - Day 6 - Homeward Bound

Well, we made it home safe and sound. We got up this morning after a good night's rest at the not-so-lovely Days Inn in Tarpon Springs, and, after breakfast we drove down to the sponge docks to SPONGEORAMA!! It was everything we hoped for and so much more. :-) The exhibits were apparently created back in the 50's and have had little or no upkeep since then. Some of the poor mannikins and figurines in the dioramas are missing hands and heads! Is was just as cheesy as was advertised. We did a little browsing around the gift shops and then were ready to point the car toward home.
The trip home was uneventful and we made it to Disc 11 of the 17 disc Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows story -- it is really getting to the good parts! I think we may have to spend more time in the car, just to listen to the rest of it! :-) We got back into town around 5:15PM and arranged to meet Emory's Mom and Dad for dinner at Harpoon Louie's, to tell them about all our adventures. We are home now and all unpacked. It was a good vacation, but I am SO happy to be home!!
We asked everyone what their favorite part was. Ethan said: Aunt Ann and Uncle Jack's house.
Samantha said: the Lighthouse and Blue Springs. Emory said: Finding Brownie the Town Dog so close to where he used to live. I said: the walks on the beach at Daytona..
Well, tomorrow we get back into our regular routine. Monday I get to go back to work and reality.
I hope you've all enjoyed our little vacation blog, and we look forward to seeing you all again soon.
Tami, Emory, Samantha and Ethan

Road Trip - Day 5

This morning we got up and packed up and had breakfast with Aunt Ann and then went to visit Emory's Grandmother before we got on the road. We were headed to the Florida Aquarium in Tampa. It was around 1:20 when when got there so we decided to have lunch at NYPD pizza at Channelside. We waited about 35 minutes, watching other people get their food, when the waitress realized she had cleared out our order as soon as she placed it, so they hadn't even started cooking our food yet. So we got our food about an hour after we ordered it. At least the pizza was good and we ate for free because the waitress messed up. So we didn't get into the Aquarium until 2:45. We were a little worried that we wouldn't have enough time, as they close at 5pm, but it is not really that big of a place, so we were able to see everything with no trouble. This time we broke down and bought the kids some treasures from the gift shop when we were done.

After the usual confusion of getting out of downtown Tampa and back on the interstate, we headed to Tarpon Springs, which is only about 35 miles away, but with rush hour traffic, probably took us close to two hours to get to our hotel. We are staying at a Days Inn that I would rate as more of a 1-star than anything else. But the room is clean enough and we are just staying the one night. We are all a bit travel-weary at this point and I for one am looking forward to getting home and sleeping in my own bed.

Tomorrow we will visit the world-famous (not) Sponge-a-rama in Tarpon Springs. Don't worry, we are not expecting much - but it was on our list. Then we will start driving back to be home tomorrow night.

Road Trip - Day 4

Today we had a nice relaxing day. We are staying at Aunt Ann and Uncle Jack's house still. They have a beautiful home with a lovely pool in the back, which the kids absolutely love. Today our big adventure was not very big, but it was fun. In our quest to visit some of the more off-beat sights in Florida, we went to Ponce de Leon park in Punta Gorda to see the site marking the death of the first white man Killed in america. There are also several statues of Ponce de Leon there. That is Samantha and Ethan (hiding behind) next to one of the statues. So we can at least say, we've been there, and seen that. The park is very nice and right on Charlotte Harbor, but it was extremely hot with very little breeze so we did not stay long. Also we are really getting into the Harry Potter story so we were happy to get back in the car and listen some more. If you have never listened to the Harry Potter books on Audio, performed by Jim Dale, you really are missing out. I would definitely recommend it for your next long car ride.

Tonight Samantha made her famous spaghetti for dinner. It was delicious! Sadly, tomorrow , we will be leaving Ann and Jack's to head off to Tampa and Tarpon Springs. We really enjoyed our visit and their hospitality. Hopefully we will make it back soon.

Road Trip - Day 3

Today was a travel day. We got up and ate breakfast and swam in the hotel pool for a while then made the mad cleanup/packing dash to get us out of the hotel right at the 11am checkout time. We had a nice drive over to Englewood (about 3 1/2 hours), listening to the new Harry Potter book on CD the whole way. We stopped by Emory's Grandmother's house for a visit then came down the road to his Aunt Ann and Uncle Jack's house where we are staying for two nights. We are having a great visit. Tomorrow we are going to venture out to see some sights in the surrounding areas. Stay tuned!!!

Road Trip - Day 2

This morning Samantha woke me up around 7:30 a.m. and wanted me to go in the pool with her. I negotiated for another 45 minutes of sleep (in 15 minute increments), and then she and I got on our suits and went out to the hottub (which was rather lukewarm at that time of the morning) and then the pool which I thought was freezing, but in the spirit of mother-daughter bonding I jumped in anyway. We swam in the pool for a while and then she and I went for a walk on the beach. So we had a really nice time. When we got back, the boys were awake so we got cleaned up and went across the street to Burger King for breakfast - only they were already serving lunch at 10:15 in the morning, so we had an early lunch instead, which proved to throw our whole eating schedule off for the day - but this is vacation, right? We don't need schedules!

Today's big outing was a visit to Florida's Tallest Lighthouse and Museum at Ponce Inlet. The lighthouse is 175 feet tall and we climbed all 203 steps to the top! Some of us were whining all the way, but I won't mention any names. :-) Once at the top, the view really is awesome, and the breeze was very welcome after the hot, long, winding climb to the top. The whole property is very well maintained and contains all the original lighthouse keepers' homes, which each contain historical exhibits. We had a nice time exploring the different exhibits. Right as we made it into the gift shop to leave, a huge thunderstorm came through and trapped us in the gift shop for about half and hour. But we still escaped with only buying a few postcards.

Since it was still raining, we headed to Target to buy a memory card reader and some snacks. The went to Boston Market for an early dinner (or a late lunch) at 3:15.

Before heading back to the hotel we needed to find another famous Daytona landmark - the grave site of Brownie the Town Dog! Well, it may not be famous, but we read about it on the "Roadside America" website and thought we should check it out. It is located at Riverfront Park, which is a pretty little garden park with lots of water and little stone bridges. After a bit of a scavenger hunt, we found Brownie's grave. It wasn't that impressive but the park was nice and Emory realized it was right in his old neigborhood where they used to live about 30 years ago.

After that we went back to the hotel for a little downtime. I left the kids with Em and took another long walk down the beach, and they swam in the pool. Tried out the new multi-memory card reader to download some pictures, but I couldnt get it to work so we headed back to Target to trade it in for a better one. We had a lovely 3rd meal (dinner? snack?) at the Pizza Hut Express in the Super Target store. I am telling you what, we know how to dine in style! We are still having some technical difficulties with the picture downloading, but there are few here - http://picasaweb.google.com/tamiami41/RoadTripDay2.

I am pretty worn out now so I am signing off now. More to come tomorrow!!!

Road Trip - Day 1 - Part II

We made it to Blue Springs around 3pm. The weather was overcast and in the mid 70's - which was a welcome change from the near-100 degree weather we've been having. We took a little nature walk along the board walk. Then we went and changed into our bathing suits. With some trepidation we approached the water. One word to describe it - c-c-c-c-c-cold!! Well, it is a constant 72 degrees, year round, which may feel warm in the winter time, but not now - plus we are really big wimps! Jumping in all at once really is the only way to approach it. Surprisingly enough we warmed up pretty quick in the water. Emory and I jumped right in, while Samantha took the more cautious route down the steps a little at a time. Ethan wanted nothing at all to do with it and stood on the steps refusing to go in until about 5 minutes before we were ready to get out. Then he came in and hung onto me like a little spider monkey. He wasn't afraid of swimming, he just didn't like the cold water at all..
We got changed and did our obligatory tour of the gift shop from which we escaped without buying anything (just barely!!) Then we went over to Thursby Manor which is an old house on the park property, built in 1872 on an Indian Shell Mound. Unfortunately it wasn't open, so we just kind of peered through the windows from the outside.
Around 5pm we left the park and headed for Daytona and the hotel. Of course we were starving at that point - swimming in cold water does that to you, apparently, so we stopped at Applebees and had a fairly good dinner - Emory's steak wasn't cooked right on the first two attempts and then it really didn't taste that good, but the wait staff and the management were very courteous and took the price off the bill. Samantha said the service there was the "best she ever had in her whole life"! I don't know if I would go that far, but they did do a good job. :-)
We found our hotel without any trouble. We are staying at the Days Inn on the beach and got an oceanfront room on the first floor right at the pool deck. The kids were dying to swim in the pool. I could hear the beach at sunset calling my name, so Emory, being the wonderful guy he is, took the kids out to the pool and let me take a really nice long solo walk on the beach. Ahhh!

Well, that's it for today -- gotta try to get the kids to sleep amid all the excitement of being in a hotel room- I guess I have forgotten just how thrilling that is!! :-)
More to come tomorrow. Hopefully we will have pictures by then. With all the technology we came loaded with, we somehow brought the wrong cable for downloading the pictures from the camera! But we will deal with that -- we've been meaning to buy a card-reader anyway ;-). Don't worry - we'll be posting boring slideshows for you guys to watch before you know it!!!

Road Trip - Day 1 - Part I

Well, we are on the road! This is Day 1 of our 6 day road trip around Florida.
Emory got up early this morning and took the Element in to get 4 brand new tires, since we were due. Then we started packing - because - why would you want to do that any sooner than absolutely necessary?
I may be exaggerating, but, among the 4 of us, I think we have enough personal electronics in the car to launch the space shuttle, or at least one of those Apollo missions. So far I've counted:
3 Ipods; 2 laptops (1 Mac, 1 Windows); 1 Sprint card;3 Portable DVD players; 2 iPod Docks; 2 sets of iPod speakers, 2 digital cameras; 1 video camera; 2 cell phones; 1 GPS; 4 pair of headphones; and a large ziplock bag full of chargers and cables.
And of course we have the stereo in the car, on which to play the brand new Harry Potter book on CD. 21 hours of magical listening enjoyment!!

We got on the road right around noon and made our first stop 3 miles down the road at my favorite place, for lunch (or any other meal, for that matter), Chik-fil-A!

So since this is our vacation, we are taking the laid back approach, not overly scheduled. The only thing we have to do today is be in Daytona Beach by this evening, because we have a hotel reservation on the beach there. Right now, we are on our way to Blue Springs in Orange City, which is close to Daytona. We are going to go swim there and look around, weather permitting, for a couple of hours and then go find our hotel and play on the beach and/or in the pool and just hang out.
We are still planning tomorrow, but we are planning to check out some of the must-see (family-friendly) sights of Daytona. :-) We will definitely keep you posted.