That's right folks. We took a good old fashioned, Clark Griswold style vacation to Florida. With airfare running $420/ticket and a rental car at $500+, we decided to drive to Florida this year instead of fly. Was it worth it? I'd say so but that is a relative answer. It saved us $1200+ so why not? It was a LONG drive. We stopped overnight in St. Louis and Atlanta on the way there and in Murfreesboro (TN) and St. Louis on the way home. Doing it with just one overnight would have been very agressive with two little kids.
When we got there, we headed to the pool. It was HOT. and HUMID. And we celebrated Grandma Carlson's birthday.
We played with Grandma.
This was at the Clearwater Marine Aquarium in Clearwater Beach. We prepped for this excursion by watching Dolphin Tale. The CMA houses Winter the dolphin who is without his tail due to being caught in a fishing net.
In this tank, you could pet the sting rays.
I'm not sure which one is Winter as there are 3 dolphins that call the CMA home. Winter wears his prostetic tail for only a few hours each day.
On the bus to the Dolphin Tale museum. It was quite neat with lots of props, photos, and background behind the filming of the movie. I would have liked to spend more time there but the kids didn't allow for that.
After visiting the CMA, we headed out to Clearwater Beach for a while. It was HOT. Nothing to drink and even the Gulf of Mexico was like a steam bath. This park we were at was right across the street from the hotel I interned at in college. I have lots of memories of Clearwater Beach. I'm kind of in awe that I got to intern at such a BEAUTIFUL place. Clearwater Beach is absolutely stunning. On the way home, we approached a severe storm just as we entered onto the causeway to cross Tampa Bay. I think it was the worst storms I have driven through. Palm fronds were flying everywhere, visibility was almost nothing, lightning bolts from the sky to the ground right in front of me. It took us a half hour just to cross over Tampa Bay. I was in the passenger seat with white knuckles and Meredith was in the back enjoying every minute of the storm. We even had a tree branch stuck in our car when we got home.
The following day, we headed out to Homosassa Springs State Park. I LOVE doing things like this. Seeing nature, no crowds, etc. Anyway, Homosassa is a spring where the manatees like to gather. In the winter, the Gulf water gets too cool and they swim inland up to the springs because the water coming out is always a steady temperature. I can't remember exactly what it is, but it's somewhere around 76 degrees. This picture below is the actual spring and we were lucky to be able to view some manatees. They actually have a viewing platform that goes out in the spring and you can view manatees from under the water. It was pretty neat.
There is also a wildlife preserve at the park that has a rather large and very nice wildlife viewing area. There are lots of native animals and tons of birds. They also house a hippo who was rescued that is an honorary citizen of the state of FL.
Just one of many alligators there.
And birds galore. Just a few flamingos here.
We spent the next day at Busch Gardens. Anna stayed home with Grandma and Grandpa so Greg and I took Meredith by herself. We figured we would be able to navigate the park so much easier without her and it was good for Anna to get a little bonding time. I did not bring my camera with so I have no pictures but we did have a good time. They have every A list animal you can think of there so that was kind of neat to see. We are not roller coaster people so we skipped all those and did some other things. Meredith did end up going on a few adult rides like the Congo River Rapids, the flume, and even one of their tame roller coasters. I had to threaten to leave 4 times as Meredith began to have tantrums over silly stuff like the rides having to close because of lightning, missing the train ride, and not being tall enough to drive the bumper cars. Seriously.
On the way home, we stayed in St. Louis on our second night of driving. We got there early and spent some time at the Gateway Arch and then at Washington University where Greg went to college.
The arch is pretty neat. I was excited to go up to the top but it was not what I was expecting. At. All. First, you have to buy a ticket for a designated time. We waited about 45 minutes for that. Then when it is your time, you get in line and wait another 45 minutes to ride to the top. I would rather have saved the $10 it cost to go up and just view it from the bottom. I was expecting a nice indoor viewing platform with room to walk around. Nope. The viewing 'room' is tiny and there were probably 75 people all crammed in there. You couldn't even move around and the people waiting in line to go back down takes up half the space in the viewing room. And the viewing windows are tiny. I wanted to go down as soon as I got up to the top.
They have a nice area in the bunker below the arch with a gift shop, museum, and theater.
I made this picture extra large. If you look closely, you can see the viewing windows in the right third of the picture. They look like black dots.
You ride up to the top in these pod-like things. It was interesting.
All-in-all, it was a good trip. We had fun!
