Florida Family Vacation Part 1

I often start my blog posts with "where to begin" and that's because there is just so much to say and well, gotta keep it short because I am often too long winded, I'll most likely be long winded anyway, but just know I tried. I'll do it in two parts so I don't take up too much of anyone's time all at once.

The drive there and back was perfect! I mean perfect. We loaded two 13 year old boys (my son brought his friend), an 11 year old and 5 year old all crammed in a rented mini-van that was not huge to say the least and off we went. The drive there was about 26 hours?? and Ian and I did 4 hour shifts all night and all day. We all did really well and the kids didn't fight once! We had maps for them to track our journey so we didn't hear the dreadful "Are we there yet?" questions, and tons of food...can't fight with food in your mouth and the fuller you are, the more you want to sleep. At least that does it for me, so hubby and I ate light most of the way while we stuffed the kids with junk. Junk keeps kids happy too. Portable DVD players (3 of them) and handheld Video game consoles never came in more handy. Once we got to Florida the drive wasn't over...since I booked our hotel close to Miami, we still had an 8 hour drive....man Florida is a big state! Those last 4 hours were really hard, we were just itching to get there already!

At one point I had hubby pull over just so I could get out of the van and stand on the side of the Interstate and raise my arms in the sky and just breathe in the beautiful summer air....yes, it was summer air, from where I live, it was summer, no matter what you Floridians think. Driving from -10 when we left to almost 30 (or 80 something Americans call it) is a BIG deal!

So enough about driving. We get there, unload the van real quick, throw the stuff in the hotel and back into the car. You might have thought I was crazy to do that, but I just HAD to get the ocean. It was only about 8 at night by this time, but I had to breathe the salty air of the ocean even if we couldn't swim in it.

The next morning, Sunday was a right off. I was really dissappointed by the wasted day. First we had to get groceries since we were doing in on the cheap and eating in the hotel suite most of the time, and then the ridicioulous seach for those stupid shoes called "Crocs"...one would think easy to find in Florida, apparently NOT! And to top it all of, just when things are almost done, I get a call from my Real Estate Guy back home saying I got an offer on the house. So we got back to the hotel I sent hubby and the kids to the pool while I dealt with the offer stuff over my laptop and the hotel's fax machine. The day was over by the time it was all done.

Monday was much the same though we did get to the ocean. Though it took us almost an hour to find parking, we spent a couple of hours at the local beach a few blocks from the hotel. It was a nice time, but way too short for my liking. The kids loved the ocean, looking for seashells, playing in the waves, this was their first time ever experiencing it, and they weren't too fond of the salty waters...can't say that's a selling feature for ocean swimming either. That was pretty much Monday...

Oh, but I did take the advice of the Photography Sites I was stalking before I went and made sure to do "photo shoot" day, and we did that Monday. Here are some great shots I got.

Tuesday was our big tour to Key West. We got up before the bugs let alone birds or sun, I think it was something like 4:30am, to be out the door by 5am, to be at the bus in Miami by 6:10am, and we did it. Hop on the bus for the 4 hour drive into Key West, through all the Keys and viola, they drop us off.....but where? Well, we were in Key West, but well...there was nothing to do. When you plan things from Canada all you got to go on is internet information, selling ads, reviews, and the phone. I used all these tools when planning out the vacation and tours and everything said that it would be a fun time for all. NOT! There literally was nothing to do. Where we got dropped off (not far from Mile 0) there was a teeny tiny 10foot beach, that the kids did not want to swim in cause it was filled with washed up sticks and didn't look pleasent. So we walked, but what's to see? Well culture, archetect (I know I spelt that wrong), people, pina coladas while walking down the street (which I did have 2 of them), um....funny looking cars....tell that to the kids. They didn't care for any of it and so the trip was pretty much a bust. Now if it was only an hour away, it would have been fine, but a 4 hour bus ride there and then 4 hours back only to spend 4 hours doing well...nothing....it was a bust. Oh well, live you learn and I've learned quite a bit....at least better questions to ask the people on the phone when calling from Canada.

One thing I did learn about our Key West trip was how to become a "back alley pumper"...I wasn't pumping on the bus with all the people surrounding me, nor in the washroom during the very short break where the women all ran to use the bathroom, instead I would hide behind restaurants, or in back alleyies whipping out the boobies to pump and dump just to keep my supply up. I did master that....and later on in the day, bathrooms too! I'll save you the pictures of that!

I'll end Part 1 with a pic of Key West...it really was a beautiful place, I LOVED the culture and it's very laid back, the streets always celebrating, I'd go back again, only without the kiddies. Poor things, and yet there were all so good about it, I've got awesome kids!