Florida trip report, part 1

I suspect this is going to be a long report, so I'm going to break it up to make it easier to type. lol

We arrived in Florida on wednesday night at 11:30pm. It was 65 degrees. My mom was wearing a jacket and complained she was freezing. I thought it was balmy! I know it's all about perspective... but damn it felt good to be warm. I deliberately did not bring a sweater or jacket, I had faith I wouldn't need it. LOL Anyway, I had hoped (from the previous trip) that Kevin would sleep on the plane. Not so much... in fact he was incredibly active and did not want to sit on my lap. Not that I really blame him. So, when we got there, I was exhausted. Kevin was AWAKE. It was after midnight and Kevin was still awake in the pack-n-play when I passed out.

thursday 3/13 - except perhaps for Kevin, we were all kind of tired that morning, so we took it easy. Kevin met my mom's dog, a small poodle-ish dog named Nicholas (Nickie). We went for walks every morning to walk the dog, so we did that, then relaxed around the house till after Kevin's nap. After lunch, mom took me to the Whole Foods store, I had never been to one before and I wanted to get a few things for Kevin. It was awesome. I wish we had one! It was huge, more like a grocery store than the health food stores here where I live. Their deli ROCKED. We also stopped at a strip mall that was having a sidewalk craft show and I bought a couple things, one of which I forgot at mom's house! :(

On friday 3/14 we were feeling a lot more energetic, so we went down to St Armand's Circle on Lido Key. Mom says the key was originally bought and used by the Ringling circus as their winter site. Now there is an upscale pedestrian shopping mall in a large circle, where you can buy fine art, expensive jewelry, classy clothes and nice imports. My favorite store was Binjara Imports. Mom and I (and Kevin) window shopped. Most of the stores were above our price range, it was just a nice place to go and have a pleasant afternoon. We came to an ice cream parlor called "Scoop Daddy's". Mom said it was the best ice cream, so we stopped to have some. Kevin had the "Superman" flavor... the ice cream was bright blue, yellow, red and green. Yum!!! haha... I had ice cream called Hazelnut chocolate chip latte. It was good stuff. Naturally we had dessert before the meal... so we kept going around the circle till we came to a cafe called Crab & Fin. We had expensive crab salad sandwiches... but they were GOOD crab salad sandwiches. It was sprinkling rain off and on all afternoon. Not enough to get us wet, but just enough to keep us from considering swimming at the beach. The clouds and sprinkles made it just cool enough (even for me) to skip swimming. But we drove down to Lido beach to see it and let Kevin get his toes wet. He is crazy about beaches. Of course they are one huge sandbox, but he loves the water like mad. I have to keep a sharp eye on him as soon as his feet hit the sand, he takes off for the water's edge on his own. There was a small boat bay between St. Armands and the beach, and mom said it's popular with the local manatees for a breeding ground. Since it was manatee breeding season, we checked the bay on the way off the key, to see if any were there, but didn't see any. Mom thinks it's because of the rain and clouds... they apparently prefer sunny warm days to come up to that bay.

Saturday 3/15 we went to the beach! Siesta beach of course. Siesta has the finest, softest white sand of all the beaches there. It's my favorite. During the drive (which was a little long due to the extra traffic from spring break) I looked at big houses on the bay side for examples of what our Winter Home will look like after I win the lottery. ha ha! I forgot to take pictures, as Kevin was quite the handful if I let go of him, and I was freaking out about the idea of him getting washed away by the waves, which were high enough to push me around. So, the camera never entered my mind. We did try to get him to play in the sand, but he wasn't interested after he caught sight of the water. So, we took him down and carried him far enough for us to get our butts wet and his feet wet. Then I took him to the edge where the highest waves came to, and we sat and played in the sand and let the higher waves get us wet. Kevin loved that. I kept showing him how to dig a big hole to let water fill it. He liked that. In spite of the huge SPF lotion I put on him, he got a little pink over his nose and cheeks. I had lotion on too, but the side of my chest facing the sun I got a little burned. Not bad though. We had a blast, and wore ourselves out. Kevin and I went up to the refreshment stand and had some cheese fries (he was STARVING apparently) while mom brought our stuff up. The beach is really wide and a long walk. Mom had to walk a half mile to where she parked the car so we could go home. The crowds were crazy for parking but the beach was so big that it didn't seem so bad... it was crowded, but not packed. I wonder what parking is like on a packed day.

ok, that's enough for this post. Kevin needs a little lovin'.