The Sunshine State

For years, Ryan's aunt and uncle have been inviting us to come and visit them, down in the Tampa Bay area.  We finally decided that this winter would be a good time to take them up on it, so in late February, we headed down the coast.  We have had some down time available and we were missing the West African sunshine, so a week in Florida seemed like the perfect solution.  Ryan's parents joined us and they slept in the rather large RV that his uncle has, while Ryan and I enjoyed the main house.  They were happy with the arrangement and hey, we didn't mind missing bedtime duty for a few days!

Unfortunately, the weather has not been especially cooperative for us.  We really wanted the kids to experience one good snow during our time in the States.  However, it seems that every place we've visited has had their biggest snow of the season 5-7 days AFTER we leave.  Then, we head to FL where it was rainy and foggy most of the week, while they got 7-8 inches of snow back at the mission house where we're staying.  Apparently, this wasn't our year for snow.

Fortunately, FL has fun to offer, even with less than ideal weather and we found some fun things to do.  We enjoyed visiting with Ryan's family and we did find a few sunny times to explore.  Here are some highlights of our time together:

Many, many times, we've passed the famous South of the Border establishment on I 95 without stopping.   But on this trip, our gas tank was nearly empty and we didn't want to pay the more expensive NC gas prices, so we pushed just across the SC border for a visit with Pedro.  It is a hoot how well they've themed every inch of that place!

Our first two days in FL were the finest, weather-wise.  On Saturday, they took us to the sponge docks in Tarpin Springs.  Steeped in Greek culture, we were able to see the wide variety of sponges that are harvested just off of the coast, eat Greek food, and enjoy some amazing Greek pastries.  It was a great afternoon.

That is one big sponge!

One of many boats at the docks.

Sunday we met up with some old friends we made about 8-10 years ago.  Our paths have crossed often over the last decade and they recently moved to Tampa.  We were able to share a great lunch in the Ybor City area.  It was great catching up with them.

Monday, we thought we'd go to the beach.  It was a bit cloudy, but the forecast called for a clearing later on.  Ummm, the forecast was wrong.  Very, very wrong.  The fog stayed and actually got much worse at times.  I have never seen anything like it.  We were right on the water's edge and the visibility was horrible.  The crazy thing was, it was a fairly cool Monday in February and yet Clearwater Beach was so crowded, we had to spend nearly 30 minutes looking for a parking spot.  It wasn't a very good beach day, but it made for some great laughs.  All I can say is, based on the crowd that day, you won't be seeing me down there in June or July!

Abe enjoyed the water, despite the chill and fog.

Making the best of a cloudy day!

One of the highlights of the week for us was when we drove over to Orlando and spent a night.  We had been gifted with free Universal tickets by a friend of a friend who worked there.  The crazy thing is, we didn't ask for them or anything, they just asked if we could use them.  It was such a gift as our family of 7 did not have had the budget to spend a day at the parks this year.  We had contemplated it when we knew we were going to FL and we just couldn't justify the 800+ dollars it would cost us to spend one day at any of the major parks.  What a treat when we were given the opportunity and all we had to pay was parking and food!  We had never been to Universal and we had a fabulous time.  We opened and closed the parks and still didn't get to enjoy all the fun things that were there.  But, we had a great time with all that we did get to do.

Abby had discovered a destination that she wanted to visit just about 15 miles from the house where we were staying.  We tried to make it there a few different times during the week, but the weather wouldn't  cooperate.  So, finally, at the end of our time there, we finally made our way to Weeki Wachee State Park.  It's a pretty vintage site that hosts a variety of interesting attractions, the most famous of which are the Weeki Wachee mermaids.  For 50+ years they've been entertaining crowds with their underwater show.  While it wasn't exactly "modern," it was pretty impressive and definitely very unique.  

Here are the mermaids, putting on their show.

The boys are thoroughly unimpressed with all of this mermaid business!

Watch out Ariel, the Campbell mermaids are on the loose!

The park also provided a wildlife show, which the boys found far more impressive than the mermaids!  What boy doesn't want to pet a reptile?

All in all, we had a great and relaxing week in the Sunshine State.  Our host and hostess were so kind and loving.  They spoiled the kids rotten and I'm pretty sure they had their sugar intake for the month in that one week.  But, fun was had by all and we're so thankful for the visit we were able to make.  Thanks, Uncle Jim and Aunt Sue!