Our Trip to Florida // Day Six // The Long Drive Home

Marissa and I both woke up pretty early on Friday morning and got up to get ready and to get packed up.  We would say our good-byes to Mom and Dad and then be on the road around 8 a.m. central time.  (It was a 13 hour drive home and we would also add on an hour because we would be driving into Eastern Time so the sooner we got started, the better).  Plus, we wanted to make one more stop together on the way home.    

At first I had checked into the zoo at Nashville but it closed at 4:00 and we wouldn't arrive there with much time to walk around so then I checked into the zoo at Birmingham.  That was only four hours away and the zoo looked fun -- but who can walk around the zoo in the cold rain that was being predicted?  Then I saw that there was a Science Center in Birmingham and since Marissa likes those almost as much as a zoo, we made plans to stop there on our way home.

It was a sunny morning when we left and we made good time but by the time we started driving near Birmingham, AL, the skies darkened and it really began to rain hard.  Thankfully we were able to pull off of the interstate shortly after the rain started and park in a parking garage before making our way into the Science Center, where we were greeted by a lot of school kids who were there on a class field trip!!  'Talk about a lot of screams and giggles.  

Marissa and I enjoy spending time together, no matter where we are, but a couple of things I must note about this visit:  One, Marissa isn't as little as she use to be when we had a membership to the Science Center near our house so she can no longer participate in the Little Town exhibits or pretend she's grocery shopping and making dinner in the little playhouses.  LOL  So that probably cut out half of the fun and half of the bottom floor, and 2. I am obviously not as young as I once was because I've reached the age where others just assume that I will not want to participate in the activities and they just jump in front of me no matter how close I am to a display or experiment.  (Or maybe people are just more rude?)  In any case, we had to leave a couple of things and then come back two or three times so that Marissa and I could both participate in something.  At one point we decided that we wanted to go where it was quieter and we slipped downstairs into the aquarium area for a bit.  

The main floor was a lot of experiments, puzzles, and physical challenges.

I won the tug of war 

And then we went into the "shrinking room" of optical illusions until we both felt sick and had to get back out.  LOL

Marissa sat and used the pulley system to lift herself off the ground - and she made it look quite easy doing it.  

Then we had to leave and come back because about five people just jumped in before I had the chance to prove myself.  But look... I lifted myself off the ground too, believe it or not!

After tiring of the crowds, we went downstairs to the lower level where we could just stand in the small aquarium area and watch all of the color changing jellyfish and the other bright fish that were there.

I'm not quite sure how long we stayed on the lower level, but as soon as they came over the intercom and announced that they were going to do a presentation for the field trip students, we got out there quickly and headed up to the third floor where the bones and artifacts were kept.  Not many would want to be up there, right?  LOL

There were also several fun "light" displays up there and Marissa used one to send a quick 'hello' to Tyler while he was still in school.

And then some more fun stuff.

Before we left, we grabbed snacks from the cafe and then Marissa asked if we could get our pictures taken in one of those photo booths.  I don't know that I have ever gotten my picture taken in there before so it was a fun experience.  We had to plan out our poses in advance because it took our picture on a timer.  I think they turned out really fun though and I'll cherish that little photo strip for years and years to come!!

We finally had to get back on the road to head home.  It was about 3:30 central time (4:30 our time) by this point and we still had at least 8 hours to drive, not counting stops for dinner and gas.  It would be an early morning by the time we finally arrived home and crawled into our warm beds.

Unfortunately it rained all the way home and traffic stopped for at least three accidents between the museum and home, so we didn't make as good of time heading home as we had hoped.

But we did stop for dinner at Panera because warm soup and hot pizza makes everything better

Thankfully we finally arrived home around 2:30 a.m. and fell asleep quickly.  

+++

Morgan went on a trip to Virginia over her spring break which was the same week that we were in Florida and Noel had just picked her up from their meeting place a couple of hours earlier so we were excited about waking up and spending time with her the rest of the weekend.  (Noel and Melayna had to leave early Saturday morning for an indoor track meet but we got to see them later Saturday night) and Nolan was very excited to see us both and kept giving us hugs and telling us how much he loved us.  Funny side note:  despite the fact that Nolan knew a month in advance about our little get-away, he still grabbed me and said "Don't ever just leave me like that again!"  

I am so thankful for the opportunity to take such a wonderful trip with one of my daughters and to get to visit my parents for a week without many distractions.  (Thank you so much Mom and Dad)  Truly time together that I'll always love and remember!

Our Trip to Florida // Day Five // Beach Day and Miniature Golf

 On Thursday morning, we once again woke up to beautiful sunny skies.  'Looks like another great morning to head down to the beach -- except that Marissa and I were both still pretty red from the day before so I decided that I would go for a nice long walk with my Dad along the beach-- and Marissa read a book (or two) under the shade of the beach umbrella.

After we walked three or four miles, we headed back up to the pool area.  We had gone in the hot tub one other day earlier in the week so we knew that we wanted to sit in there again for a while.  The warm water pool was also open (finally) so we headed up there to swim for a bit but it was too crowded to even do more than just stand so we went back down to the main pool and the lazy river.  While Dad was in the hot tub, Marissa swam a little in the cold pool and then the two of us did a lap in the lazy river, but neither of us took our phones so we don't have any pictures to prove it.  It was a fun way to spend our last afternoon there.

Later in the day, we would once again head into town for some miniature golfing and dinner.

'Look at our little sun-kissed faces!  A little vitamin D was exactly what we needed!

Since this was our last night there, we finally remembered to get a picture of Marissa with both of her grandparents.  

And then some pictures with me too!

Reading of the scores... 

Grandpa won again!  Rumor is that he does that often!

I placed second and...

...Marissa and Grandma tied for last.

It was a really fun week and we definitely made some great memories but all good things must come to an end so now we needed to go back to the condo and pack up as we'd be leaving for home the next morning.

Our Trip to Florida // Day Four: Sunset Pictures Galore

 Wednesday night would be our first opportunity to check out the sunset since the other nights had been so foggy or dreary and the sun was hardly showing.  Marissa and I headed down to the beach as soon as we got back to the condo and we definitely took plenty of pictures and just sat and enjoyed the beautiful colors as the sun set before us.  

What a gorgeous night!