We come home today and I figure it’s time for a small recounting of our adventures in Florida. I say small because I don’t want to bore everyone with a travel log. But there are a few funnies that might be of interest.
Things we forgot
-Jeff’s driver’s license (which the Bunkers were kind enough to mail to Miami but which we didn’t end up getting until the last day of our trip)
-My driving glasses (This proved problematic since I was the only one with a driver’s license and therefore the only one that was supposed to drive the rental car. The first night there was dark and rainy and therefore I was blind. Jeff decided to take his chances and drive anyway. We were constantly checking for blue and red lights the entire trip. If he would have been caught driving, they would have taken the car away.)
- That we might need more than a few hours of sleep to enjoy Disney World the day after we arrived in Florida. I guess we didn’t factor in the 3 hour time difference and the late arrival time. We never ended up making it.
Things Nicky Enjoyed
- Hotel room (Nicky’s favorite phrase while doing anything away from the hotel,“I want to go to the room.”)
- Making fake hot chocolate in the hotel room
- Playing in sand
- The fountain at the Disney Shopping Center (or any fountain for that matter).
- Getting to Grandma Karen’s house two days ago.
Things Andy Enjoyed
- Anything outside of his car seat... and of course touching baby alligators.
My favorite things
- Feeding hot dogs to the Alligators at “Gatorland.” There may never be a time I’ll get to see those sinister looking animals snap for hot dogs again. I loved it.
- Any activity where the kids didn’t upset other vacationers with their crying.
- The Florida Keys (the part of the vacation that was most like Hawaii; my favorite vacation spot in the world)
- The Coral Castle (This crazy little man (4 foot 9) spent 25 years making a castle out of coral for a lost love. There is some kind of mystery about how he was able to do it given he had no real tools and or any help sculpting or loading the coral. He never told anyone his secret. How romantic and scary at the same time!)
Jeff’s favorite things
- Snorkeling
- Key West and the nightlife and shopping
- Anything Key Lime at the Key Lime Shop in Key West. We made multiple visits for chocolate covered Key Lime pie, Key Lime cookies, taffy, salsa, etc. etc.
- Our 20 minute sojourn stuck in the elevator at the San Diego airport. The worst part was that nobody told us how long we would be in there. They just said, they where working on it. My does it get stuffy and hot inside an elevator that isn’t going anywhere and contains two restless little people and one panicky husband. We didn’t even know if we would make our flight.
- The number of items we took with us on vacation (2 car seats, 2 strollers, 1 pack and play, 7 items of luggage). It sort of felt like we were moving ourselves to Florida.
- My 10 minute meltdown at South Beach. It was hot and windy and the kids were crying. I did a freak out when I realized I wasn’t having fun at all in that moment and we were spending a ton of money on our trip and that should require you to have fun, RIGHT!
Least Memorable Birthday
Poor Andy. We bought him two cupcakes on his birthday and put them in the cooler. As we drove from the Keys to Miami they fell into the ice and got really soggy. We ended up taking him on a late trip to Denny’s to have a brownie, which he unappreciatively shoved aside. Nicky didn’t mind helping him blow out his candle and eating his brownie. He then fell asleep a few minutes later. At least we sang to him but I am glad he won’t remember that I didn’t make him a big fancy cake like I did for Nicky. I feel like such a loser.
Summary
We are going to wait until the kids can stay with someone until we take a fancy vacation again. It’s not that we don’t enjoy the kids, but it would be at least 50% more fun if we could stay out later and not have to pack so much garbage. Plus the kids are so little, they really don’t enjoy travel. They get so tired and cranky. That being said, it was definitely a fun and memorable trip.
7 comments:
Yes, we gave up on vacations with children long ago. Hooray! Sounds like you got a lot done though! I'm glad you went to gatorland. My dad says that was the big attraction when he lived there--no such thing as Disney.
OOPS... lets try this again. I think I told myself the same thing after the last vacation. Either we will be driving if it's close enough or going without the kids. It is such a pain to lug carseats, strollers etc. to and from the airport. I'm exhausted thinkin about it. I love the picture of Andy and his birthday brownie... he looks a mix of being ticked and tired.... lol lol. Kids, you gotta love them. It sounds like you had fun though. You always need a vacation away from a vacation when you get home too.
I want to go to Florida...I love key lime anything! IT looked like it was a blast! I do have to agree with you on kids and vacations...the two don't always mix well, but it sounds like you did a fantastic job. Plus, look at all the pictures you took that make the trip look like it was tons of fun. They will always look back and think you all look like you are having the time of your lives and that you are the best parents in the world!
Todd and I took our first trip without the kids after 10 years of marriage. We missed them, but WOW was it fun! We just took Katy and Jordan to Hawaii and left the other two home. Like you said, the younger ones won't remember or appreciate. It looks like you still had a wonderful time though1
Wow! We felt like heroes just for taking our kids camping for two nights. Hats off to you for attempting such an adventure. How many one year olds get to celebrate their birthday in the Florida Keys?? He'll appreciate cake more next year anyway. The pictures look so fun! The water looks dreamy!
Such fun pictures, I love Andy's face looking at his brownie that you worked so hard to get and he seems to not be so interested! So cute! And you look great by the way, very fun to see your cute fam! Talk to you soon! Heather
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