Paul and I had a great vacation visiting Bryan and Rebecca down in Florida. We left Saturday morning (Aug 29th) and got to their place around 4:30 that afternoon. That evening we went to eat at Kobe Steakhouse, which is a Japanese restaurant, and stuffed ourselves to the max. I even tried some advanced sushi! And I liked it! I tried some beginner sushi months back and I was okay with that, but I tried more fishy stuff this time...yellowtail. Bryan ordered some, so I tried one of his and it was delicious! I also tried lobster for the first time...it was good, but Bryan said I'd get much better lobster at a different restaurant.
how I've missed the beach! It felt wonderful to sit on the sand, feel the warmth of the sun, smell the salt air, and listen to waves crashing!!! That night the four of us went to Pirates Dinner Adventure (it's like Medieval Times except with pirates instead of knights). We were a little disappointed with the food (thank goodness we didn't pay full price for our tickets), but our pirate won!
Tuesday, Sept. 1 -I just love water parks, so Paul and I decided to go to Wet 'n Wild. Most of 
the rides here have a minimum of 2 people riding at a time. For those of you who don't know, Paul doesn't like heights all that much, but I made him ride all the 2- to 4-person rides with me that I wanted to except one (I promised Paul I wouldn't even try talking him into that one). And he actually liked them! Well, he liked all but 1 1/2 (he only didn't like one part of one of the rides). I begged him to go on a ride where you sit in a big tube/tire thing and you slide down, but there are 3 steep drops on the way down...let's just say Paul expressed his dislike for me at that moment the whole way down...haha! We BOTH enjoyed the water park and had lots of fun. That night the four of us, along with 2 of Bryan and Rebecca's friends, went to an Italian ice place call Jeremiah's. It was soooo yummy! Matt ( my brother who lived in Italy for 2 years) said that's the closest he's come to finding real Italian ice in the U.S.
and Rebecca went to a doctor's appointment in the morning (Rebecca found out she was about 8 weeks along, so now she's about 9), then Rebecca went to work and Bryan, Paul, and I drove to a marina so we could see some manatees! It was still raining a little bit when we got there, but we got out anyway. It was so neat how the manatess just hang out at the docks. I wanted to pet one, but we weren't fortunate enough to have one come up close enough to us.
Thursday, Sept. 3 -Happy birthday to Rebecca! Rebecca, Paul, and I hung out at the neighborhood pool until Bryan got home from class...then it was time to go on vacation on vacation! We drove to Ormond Beach that night (about an hour away) and got a cheap, but nice hotel room with an ocean view! We ate at a local seafood place called Barnacles. Bryan, Rebecca, and I all got crab legs and they were sooo sooo sooo yummy! I hadn't had crab legs in a long time, so I was excited to get some. Paul doesn't like seafood, so he got a steak. We tried to talk him into trying some crab, but he refused...oh well, it's his loss. After dinner, we rented a movie and got ice cream. We watched the movie at the hotel, then decided to walk on the beach, We didn't get to walk very far before it started to rain...BOO!
Friday, Sept. 4 -Today was probably my favorite day (Paul's too). We spent the day in St. Augustine (about 30 minutes 
from Ormond Beach). We tried to make it there to go sailing at 12:15, but we were delayed by an unfortunate circumstance that turned out to be fine in the end, so we just missed it. No problem, though....there was another sailboat ride at 6:15 that evening. So off to the 
beach we went for a couple hours. We had lots of fun in the water and walking along the beach. After the beach, we went to the old fort where, as a joke, Bryan and I reenacted a picture we were in when were were 3 and 2 (our family went to St. Augustine a long time ago).
"Is there anything in there?"
"Nope, just dark."
Then we walked around all the shops downtown, ate dinner at a great little sandwich-type restaurant, then walked down to the docks for some sailing. Sailing was awesome! The crew had Bryan and Paul help raise the 
sails. We also were lucky enough to see dolphins! And there were lots of them! Because of the time we went out, we also were able to see the sunset and it was beautiful! The atmosphere was so nice. We also had lots of laugh on the boat with one of the crew members because we were singng a song by Andy Samburg called "I'm on a Boat" and Brandon (the crew member) knew it too and kept singing it and laughing with us about it. We also took a "hardcore" picture pretending to be the people in the music video (Paul's got his flippy-floppies). It was lots of fun. After sailing, we walked back to the car and drove the 1 1/2 hours home. We were all so tired when we got home, but we had to shower before going to bed because we were all sandy and salty, but we eventually were able to pass out.
Saturday, Sept. 5 -Sad day! It's our last full day 
on vacation! Paul and I got up early in the morning so that we could do a session at the Orlando Temple. This temple is so beautiful inside and out! (Well, they all are, but you know what I'm saying.) I'm so glad we made time to go to the temple, especially since we don't have a temple to use here in Atlanta for the next year or so because it's being renovated. After that, the four of us went to Rock Springs in Apopka. We grilled some hot dogs (it turned out to be a long, difficult process....if you want to know more, ask me later). After eating came the fun part....we tubed down a river. It's a natural lazy river....you sit in a tube and just float down it. You can't go 
past a certain point, though, becuase there's alligators...YIKES! The water was FREEZING cold (it never gets above 72 degrees). Once you got in, you got used to it fairly quickly. After one float down the river, Rebecca and I were ready for another ride, but our big, strong hubbies were being little girls and didn't want to get back in the cold water. I wanted pictures of us in the water, so the guys stood on a rock and took pictures of Rebecca and me coming around the corner. When we trid to get out at the spot where the guys were waiting for us, the current was a lot stronger than we anticipated and we could barely move. There are some pictures of us struggling and some pictures of our wimpy husbands who finely relented to at least putting their feet in the water for a picture.
Sunday, Sept. 6 -We went to sacrament meeting at church, ate lunch at B & R's, said our goodbyes, then Paul and I hit the road back home.
It was a great visit. The four of us had tons of fun together...there were definitely plenty of jokes and laughing. It was great to get away from things and just relax for a while. We used Labor Day to catch up from our vacation and rejuvinate ourselves for the next day. Anyway, there's more pictures on facebook if you want to take a peek. Below is a video of the dolphins we saw while sailing.
1 comment:
Im so glad you guys had such a great time! It sounds like such a fun vacation! You all look so good in all your pictures! :)
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