Right down the highway, you could get to the Magic Kingdom, Epcot and everything else by Disney, including "Downtown Disney"...a place I'd heard Sara talk about going with some of the Residents after work sometimes. It's a free area to shop and eat and hear some live music. It was still raining, although had slacked off some, but the skies were really dark and strange looking...but we "adventured" out anyway. (The pic below is kind of dark....but it still shows how bizarro the sky was looking!)
I thought it was a lot of fun to see..... all the colorful places, lots of blinky and sparkly lights, people everywhere enjoying the same evening atmosphere as we were.
It poured down rain off and on...and we got kind of wet...but you're in Disney...so who cares?
Then we saw the Lego store....it was SO MUCH FUN!
Our kids were all into Legos...Lucas a little more than the others, but we all spent hours and hours putting them together when the kids were small. I still have all of them carefully stored at the house...for future use....and don't get any ideas that I putting pressure on my kids to have kids....I think it might be a great way for Danny and I to spend our retirement when we get a little lulu in the head!!! but anyway....you can see there were tons of kids just playing with legos (waaay cool in a place filled with million dollar machines, that kids still LOVE LEGOS.) Anyway, there were all these really huge and super cool Lego sculptures around the outside of the store, inside the store and a huge dragon in the nearby lake (whose job is that to build those?....I should have been a Lego Monster-builder....how bad can a day at that office be?)
There was a WHOLE WALL of just same-colored logo pieces (you know, like the M&M store?)...it was sooo neat.
On our way out of the store (yes, we finally had to leave, and no I didn't buy the "Luke Lego Mug" or myself the "Lego Keychain") we spotted one more really fun Lego sculpture.....okay....I just LOVED THIS PLACE!
On to the next place...a giant Disney store, where you could purchase everything Mickey, Princess and Pirate (Okay, I DID break down and make a purchase...but it's really neat....at 51, I finally have a "Disney World" t-shirt...it's a big peace sign filled with mickey-moused shaped ears! super-fun!)
It was getting late, and we were pretty DAMP from trying, unsuccessfully to dodge the rain, so we decided to leave and find a place to get a little something to eat. (A little sad side note here....scroll to below the link at the bottom of the page to find out more.)
We ended up at Bonefish Grill...sharing a wonderful and yummy order of Bang Bang Shrimp (Sara and I love this!!) and Phad Thai...and great way to end the evening. We headed back to the apartment and soon turned in....all tired, but dry....and I kept thinking of all the hundreds of little kids doing the same thing tonight in Orlando....falling asleep with visions of bright, blinky lights, color-filled buildings and displays of giant sized toys and characters, and the sounds of laughter and happiness and joy....what a night to dream!
****okay....so it's really now Friday night, I know I have not posted since last Tuesday...my worse record yet...but the days in between were pleasantly long....no time to post....but here's how it went***********
Wednesday, May 27--day
Sara is currently working on an ultra-sound rotation this month, and had to work this morning. Danny treated me to a couple of visits to some vintage/used clothing shops....I didn't find anything I couldn't live with out...but I always enjoy browsing.
When Sara got off work, we ate lunch at a small outdoor cafe on Lake Eola, near downtown...it began to lightly rain during lunch, but we managed to stay dry. Our plan was to go to the Leu Botanical Gardens after lunch...provided the weather cooperated.
Well, the clouds decided to provide us with dark shadows and big, plump raindrops. We ditched the Garden idea, and went to Winter Park; a nice little shopping area that's outdoors, but a lot of the sidewalks are covered. The only purchase made was a really cool birthday gift for a friend of mine. The sun popped out while we were there, and it turned out to be a nice evening. We returned to the apartment to relax for a little while....Danny and I sat out by the pool.
For dinner, we ended up at the "Mellow Mushroom"; a pizza joint that's one of Sara's favorites. She told us they had a really good beer selection that included some "Lost Coast" beer...a brewery in Eureka, close to where the boys live. I tried a new brew...."Lost Coast Tangerine"...sounds kind of tacky, it's true, but it was wow-delicious. I spoke with Pete and he said they've just began to bottle it and it's one of his favorites....yummy-good pizza and beer. We took our time during dinner and just visited, enjoying being outside, and loving having the opportunity to visit with Sara.
Thursday, May 28--day 6
Sara had to go into the hospital until about noon, but we left as soon as she was done, driving east to the coast. We went to a little beach called "New Smyrna"....I'd forgotten that I'd been to this beach before....it's one that you can drive on. The sky kept growing dark, but we broke out our picnic lunch and had positive thoughts about the weather...then it started to thunder and sprinkle. So, we "picnicked" in the car, getting out from time to time to check out the tiny raindrops and the weirdo-looking clouds.
It wasn't long before we drove the car onto the beach, unloaded, and parked our chairs near the water. It was pretty strange weather...on one side, the sky was bright and filled with sunshine, the other side was dark and gray, you could hear thunder from time to time and even see lightening way, way out towards the horizon...the best thing was, it cleared the beach of most of the people....so we stayed on the beach....Danny swam a lot...and just enjoyed a lazy afternoon.
I was just walking around on the beach, looking down from time to time at shells, and this one got up and moved...then I became fascinated with it....this little guy was soooo cute!
I love being on vacation!
Sara suggested we drive to St. Augustine...a little town to the north of Daytona and south of Jacksonville. This town is of Spanish origin and the architecture is very, very cool.
This is the old Ponce de Leon hotel, built in something like the early 1900's....it's now Flagler College...it was just beautiful!
the outside....
the inside....
more of St. Augustine...
There were endless little narrow bricked streets wandering behind all of these cool and very old buildings and houses. The shops were mostly all closed; a few restaurants were open, there was a free concert in the center square, and the night was really nice.
This is the oldest city wall in the states...it was getting dark, but it has a mote around it and cannons posted along the wall too.
We visited the A1A brew pub...but had just finished dinner, so we passed on the beer (we also were looking at a 2 hour drive back to Orlando). The sun had set, the sky were clear but dark, and it was a pretty picture to see the boats in the bay, peaceful and quiet. It was getting late.
It would have been nice to stay longer in St. Augustine, but we needed to leave. I'm really glad Sara suggested that we come here....it's a pretty cool little place and I think I'd enjoy touring it more someday.
We made the 2 hour drive back to Orlando, packed up our bags and turned in about 1 am.
Friday, May 29--day 7
Alarms went off three hours later, and about 5 am, we said our good-byes to Sara, embraced each hug, loaded up the car, and headed to the airport for our super-early flight back to Kansas City.
Our vacation was over, it all went waaaayyy tooooo faaaassstttt, but it was great to see Sara. We're so excited for her upcoming adventure in Birmingham...we all hope she just loves it there!
My next trip? begins next week!!!! I'll be headed to Dallas this coming Tuesday night for a wedding.
In June, I'll begin to plan my summer trip to Colorado....right now I'm set to leave the first weekend in July and will be staying for the month, just camping and hiking and this year...I'll be biking too!...and I can't wait. I've been looking forward to this trip all year and working extra jobs to fund it. So, join me for updates, photos, funny stories, and some amazing places in Colorado.
Thanks for taking this adventure with me....let me know when and where your next adventure is....I'd love to follow along!
take care, vicki