A Saturday spent on boats

Saturday

We got up early and drove to Key Largo where we went to John Pennicamp State Park for a Glass Bottom boart tour. Grandma loved exploring the area especially the trees and plants. We also took her to the aquarium/visitor's center before our tour. The waves were 4 to 6 feet and all of us took medicine for sea sickness. This was not entirely effective for Grandma or Cody... :( Will and Katie loved riding the waves on the upper deck on the way out to the coral reef. The view was awesome, and we some some really neat animals under water. Katie's first-aid training came in handy when Grandma cut her arm and another man fell/fainted on board. All are fine and fixed up :) 

We went to lunch at Key Largo Conch House. It had great sandwiches, wraps, and lobster bisque. Their conch fritters had a curry flavor, and were very unique. We all got coffee, smoothies, and teas for the road.  

Next we drove on the Everglades City, were we had a boat tour scheduled for 4 in the afternoon. It was pouring rain on the way, but it cleared up as we got there.  Cody went in the wrong tour company's building to check in. They were nice, but did not have us on their books. We got a private boat tour for an hour with headphones for all, so that we could hear each other, the tour guide, and talk to each other.      We saw three really cool animals on our tour. There were two alligators which we got so close to that we could have touched it if we had wanted to. There was a friendly raccoon in the mangrove trees who came over to tell us hello, and we saw a manatee  (technically only Will and Katie saw the Manatee, but it was AWESOME!) There are no pictures of this tour because of the rain and possibility of getting the camera wet. Sorry. The everglades were different than any of us thought. They were not as marshy. Air boats are cool, too. It is amazing how the guide steered it when so much of the time it was drifting and sliding. 

For dinner, we traveled on to Naples, and we had cuban to eat. It was delicious! Then we went to our hotel and crashed. Will was asleep by 8:30, and the rest of us were not far behind him. 

Grandma looking at plants in Pennecamp's garden

The state park had a great little aquarium

Everyone getting ready for the boat to take off

Where we ate our delicious lunch

Friday in the Keys

Sorry we got so behind on blogging. :( We got really busy having fun!

Friday:
We woke up on Friday morning and made one of our longest drives for the trip (5 hours). It is really nice to have  3 drivers, and we switch off with driving around every 2 hours. After driving to Marathon Key, we took a break from driving and ate lunch at Porky's barbeque, a great restaurant with a very unique menu. Brayton drenched his barbeque sandwich in all 3 of the sauces they had at the table.  We agreed that the deep fried key-lime pie was the highlight of our lunch.

After lunch, we drove to Key West for our trolly tour of the historic part of the city. We all agreed that the history was really interesting. Grandma really enjoyed seeing Key West in person, especially the architecture. After the trolly ride, we wandered into some shops nearby and find a really cool toy store: a jungle / pirate wreck themed building complete with a live kinkajou.

After the toy store, we took grandma to Mallory Square where the sunset celebration takes place each night. We said goodbye to Key West and headed to dinner at the Hogfish Bar and Grill. The food was incredible and Will and Cody were impressed with the really relaxed atmosphere and the live music. Will and Brayton loved the coconut shrimp (and everyone else agreed it was some of the best coconut shrimp they had ever had!)

We then promptly fell asleep once we reached our hotel on Marathon Key.

Brayton enjoying his barbeque at Porky's

Mile marker 0

Closer to Cuba than the mainland

The awesome toy store

Katie and Grandma at Mallory Square

Brayton said the sun was in his eyes

Pokemon = Brotherly Love

Valdosta to Kennedy to Space to Port St. Lucie to Greece to Bed

Quick summary of Wednesday:
We had a a delicious dinner of Indian food and made it safely to Gainesville, FL. Brayton had interesting sleeping arrangements. We made him a massive pallet of pillows and blankets. He said it felt like heaven at first and a pile of rocks in the morning.

Thursday:
Well, we are safe and sound in Port St. Lucie, FL after a fun filled day at Kennedy Space Center. This was Grandma, Cody, and Brayton's first time there, unless you count Brayton since he was technically there last time (even though none of us knew but Mama).  He says that did not count. 

 All of us got up at six this morning and were eating breakfast downstairs with a loaded car by 6:45. Not bad at all for five of us sharing a bathroom and getting all of the the young ones up. We arrived at Kennedy Space Center about 10:00, and everyone appreciated the glorious handicap sticker for parking :) .

Grandma says that the Kennedy Space Center was "awesome".  Her favorite part was the Saturn 5 Building.  Grandma also enjoyed her wheelchair rides and using it to her advantages. Katie enjoyed seeing the Vehicle Assembly Building, and she was very impressed with the size of the building. It is the largest one story building in the World. Will loves anything space and drooled the whole time. He was the camera man, and taunted Michael Hanna with texts throughout the experience. He liked seeing the shuttle Atlantis and the launch pads up close. Cody enjoyed touching a moon rock and the Vehicle Assembly Building. We convinced Brayton that he was going to see a rock garden, but he quickly realized that it was a Rocket Garden.

Brayton trying out a Liberty Capsule

Will with the Space Shuttle Atlantis in the Vehicle Assembly Building

Vehicle Assembly Building

Launch Pad 39A From Unmanned Camera Ridge (which is too close for humans)

 

Saturn 5 Engines

Apollo 14 Capsule

After checking into our hotel in Port St. Lucie, we went to dinner at a Greek Restaurant. Everyone loved it. Brayton brought up that it was a little funny that we were eating Greek after visiting NASA and learning about the Roman gods.  Now it is time to rest and recharge for tomorrow. 
 

Grandma, The Bachelors, and the Not-So-Newlyweds

Well, it is another year and another adventure with Grandma. We are setting off tonight in a rental van filled with Grandma, Cody,  and Katie. We will also be having Katie's younger brothers joining us this trip. Will is 21, and Brayton is 11. We are not going far tonight, (only to Gainesville, FL) but our trip will consist of traveling to Key West, FL, and around the lower Florida area in general. We are excited and ready for another adventure.

Home Sweet Home

View from our hotel room

Grandma and Will at Camp

Lunch with Polly

Kathy's House in Macon

Home Sweet Home in Grandma's House

We checked out of the Dahonega hotel and drove Grandma around the city. It was fun to see all of the places on the square where we have spent much time during the summers there. We met Will at the Welcome Center of Camp Glisson. When Cody and Katie were leaving camp, Grandma was so used to following them, that she tried to get back into the jeep rather than going with Will. It was cute. Grandma loved the camp. She said she understood why we liked working up there so much. She was very happy to see Will, too. It was not hard to say goodbye to Will because he is coming home the next day!

We met Aunt Polly for lunch at Atlanta Highway Seafood Market which was excellent. It was a very unique market that also served great seafood in its restaurant. It was great to see Polly, and we arrived all at exactly the same time.

Next we continued our journey down to Macon where we had coffee at Cody's mom's house. It was wonderful to see her. Grandma LOVED her house and saw how talented she is with her art. We all enjoyed the break and time to catch up with her in her fun house.
We arrived home about nine o'clock last night. Nancy was very glad to see us and loved her "hog whisperer" t-shirt Grandma got her at Pappy's in St. Louis.  When Cody parked the red jeep in the garage, the trip odometer was at 2,697 miles. That's a lot of driving! It was weird to say goodbye because we are all used to staying together now. We are having a family reunion dinner together tomorrow night with Michael and Martha and Will and Brayton since everyone will be home then.

On the ride home, we talked in the car about our favorite parts of the trip. St Louis was everyone's favorite city. Everyone liked how friendly everyone was there and how the pace of the city wasn't rushed. All the museums and music were also great. Our favorite hotel by far was the Hampton Inn in Nashville. It was decorated with instruments, the people at the desk were friendly, and they had the biggest hotel rooms any of us had ever stayed in. We had too many great restaurants to choose a favorite, but some of them stood out in our minds. Cody really liked the pizza place in St. Louis called Pi, Katie loved The Dizzy Gypsy in Little Rock, and Grandma liked the Thai place in Nashville called The Smiling Elephant because its name and how unique its architecture was (and of course the food). That's just a handful though of all the things we enjoyed on our trip.

Thank you all for following our blog. We hope you enjoyed the trip as well.

Driving towards Dahlonega

Getting ready to leave our awesome large hotel room.

Unpacking the car in Dahlonega

A gorgeous sunset from our window

We got up this morning and headed towards Chattanooga.  It was funny when we went in and out of GA and TN. Grandma decided that her cell phone was confused, and that was why it did not change back to Eastern Time at first.  We ate lunch at Good Dog which had every creative combination of hot dogs and broughwosts you could think of. They also had curry ketchup and wasabi katchup on every table for their special fries. Next we went to the Aquarium which is divided into Ocean and River in two different buildings. We all liked the Jellyfish a lot. There were even upside down ones. The building was set up where you start at the top and work your way down through the exibits. The Georgia Aquarium is a must visit in Grandma's future.  Afterwards we started towards Dahlonega. We stopped for dinner at Blue Cajun Bistro in Blue Ridge. The drive today was beautiful in the mountains and Katie drove smoothly on the winding roads. (All were impressed including Katie) Now we are all settled in for the night and caught up on the blog.

Katie wants everyone to know that the boring photo captions for today and yesterday were written by Cody and not her.

Noticing the Niceties of Nashville

Grandma at breakfast in the hotel dining room

The Parthenon replica in Nashville, TN.

A ton of geese in Centennial Park.

We did a different type of touring by mostly car in the morning. We drove through Vanderbelt, Centenial Park, and Belmont. Cody said he saw the "panthanon." Even after hearing why there is a full-scale replica of the Parthanon in Centenial Park, it still seems strange to all of us. We went to the best toy store any of us had ever been in (which is saying a lot between the three of us).  Cody and Katie got excited because they bought "Christmas" presents for Brate and Will, but then they realized that both their birthday's come first...oh well. They have birthday presents instead.  We ate lunch at a Thai Restaurant called the Smiling Elephant which was wonderful. Cute tiny shop with a fabulous name. 

We drove down to Franklin for the afternoon and walked around the downtown area. There were a ton of cute shops that reminded us of Thomasville. Jay Jay met up with us, and Lauren joined us after she got off work. We walked around a great used bookstore and had frozen yogurt at Sweet Cece's. Jay Jay walked up to Grandma and gave her a hug for a greeting. Grandma thought he was a confused guy who thought she was his grandma, and she didn't say anything becuase she didn't want to embarass him.  When she saw me talking to him, she realized that she should know him, and put together that she had met him the night before, and he was Lauren's boyfriend. Grandma went back to the hotel for a quiet evening and sent Katie and Cody out on the town with Lauren and Jay Jay. (They were back and in bed by eleven though.) Overall, it was a great Nashville experience.