It was a crazy day on Friday; worked all four of my stores and went to visit my little ones. Throw in a grocery run after that and I was too pooped to blog. So it's now Saturday, January 5th and I'm continuing on my with holiday blog. (is this getting confusing yet)
Floriday Vacation
Day 2
Saturday December 29th
Friday and Saturday seemed to blend together. The reason for the blur of the two days was due to the fact that our flight for Florida departed at five minutes after midnight. Once again the four of us were sitting in the same row. Ashley requested the window seat once more, so we too took our usual seats. This would have been the perfect flight to grab some much needed sleep. Turns out Ashley was the only one that was able to sleep for the entire flight. Cramped legs and unscheduled turbulence made it difficult to get comfortable for the rest of us. Speaking of the turbulence, all I could think about was the T.V. show LOST. I kept trying to remember where the plance broke in half, and wondering if we were sitting in a safe spot. After discussing this later with Patrick, he explained that we probably wouldn't have been main characters on the show. Note to self, plan better seats next time.
We landed in Orlando around 7:00 a.m., Saturday morning. This time we were able to retrieve our luggage and we did go through customs without any delays. I guess my special status had expired. We found our shuttle that would take us to the off site car rental. I was a little shocked, but more concerned when Bill asked me to be the designated driver for the trip. Seems he was still feeling a little light headed and a little queasy from his door encounter the day before. It wasn't long before we had loaded the hatchback of our little Ford, Fiesta with three of the four suitcaes, and the back seat with the kids and the last suitcase. Maybe we should have taken the rental agents advice, and upgraded to a larger car. Naw, the suitcases wouldn't be in with us for long. So I'm the desitnated driver, with no sense of where we are going, and I have three navigators, 2 GPS systems, and a whole lot of freeways. Nervous, you bet. We find our resort fairily easily, but trying to navigate through the parking area was a little more challenging. Go here, over there, round there, where are you going? I ended up in front of the front gate, with no room key to let me in, and two cars behind me wondering what the heck was taking me so long to raise the bar. Thankfully Ashley jumped to the resuce. She got out of the stationary car and went into the lobby. They raised the gate and I was able to leave the confines of the resort to the visitor parking. Not a great way to relieve my nervousness. By now I was ready for a nap. Wait it's only 10:00 a.m. in the morning, and check in isn't until 4:00 p.m.. With droopy eyelids and a dejected expression on my face, I ask the front desk if there was any way we could get an early check in. She said she didn't think so but she would look. I quietly muttered, that was o.k., we could just all crash on the couches in the lobby. I'm not sure if my muttering was loud enough, but a room became available for us. We drove our car throught the front gate, this time with a room key in hand to lift the gate, and drove to building 6. Our room was in the second level, but we were just glad to have a room.
I dropped my suitcase by the front door and headed for the upstairs bedroom and the king size bed. I threw back the covers and once my head it the pillow, I was out. As I was drifting off to sleep, I could hear the other three laughing and trying to make sense of the pull out couch. I awoke two hours later to find the suite extremely quiet. Both Patrick and Ashley were fast asleep on the sofa bed. Bill was no where to be found. I knew he was tired from the lack of sleep the night before, plus his ongoing headache from his bump on the head. I checked upstairs and his wallet was on the dresser. In fact, even his phone was on the dresser. The sight of his pohone put me in a slight panic mode. Anyone who knows Bill, is aware that he doesn't travel very far away from his phone (work might need him) I ever so gently nudged the kids to see if they knew the whereabouts of their Dad. Before my imagination could get a strong hold on me, Ashley reminded me that dad was probably testing out his new GPS/watch toy. That calmed my mind a little bit, but the thought that bill could be walking around the resort with amnesia was still on the edge of my mind. Shortly after that, Bill sauntered in the front door, sweating from his run. (So much for being tired and having a headache)
By now it was after 12:30 lunch time, so we unanimously agreed to hit an outlet mall. According to the brochure/map the trip should take about 9 minutes. An hour later, we sill hadn't arrived at the mall. Stop and go, stop and go, stop and bump. The car behind us obviously hadn't figured out the driving pattern yet, and he hit our back bumper. I looked in the rear view mirror, and the driver just sat in his car looking at me. I guess this was like a game of chess, and it was my turn to make a move. So I sent out my trusted knight Bill to take a look at the bumper. Only then did the gentleman get out of his car and say sorry. I pulled forward slightly so the bumpers were no longer touching, and Bill could access the situation. There must have been no obvious damage because both my knight and my opponent returned to their cars. The rental place did say not to worry about minor dents and scratches. Luckily it was a minor accident because there were two young kids in the other car's back seat roaming around without seat belts.
Finally after an hour and fifty minues from leaving our hotel, we arrived at the mall. After driving around for another thirty minutes, we finally realized finding a parking spot would be like winning the lottery, very unlikely. We headed across the busy thoroughfare and parked near a local grocery store. We had to walk by the Outback restaurant, and decided a quick bite before shopping might be a good idea. We finished dining and then dashed across the busy road, and thrust ouselves into the chaos world of shopping. If you have any kind of bond with me, you know that shopping is not on my list of favorite activities. I did make a purchase though. At Luluemon I found an orange coat which caught my eye when we first walked in. The remainder of the shopping was to appease the kids. Bill and I just went for the walk. The sun had set by the time we finished roaming the outside mall and we had to once again cross the busy road to reach our car. There was a slight delay in vehicles, so I crossed the road without incident. Bill did the same, and then Ashley and Patrick tried to follow. It was about this time Patrick dropped his sunglasses in the middle of the road. Lets just say the next few seconds reminded me of those crazy squirrels or gophers that try to cross the road. Thankfully the entertainment of it all prompted the cars to stop, chuckle and let both kids cross safely.
We make a quick stop in the grocery store and then headed back to our hotel, which turned out to be a much shorter and less bumpy ride. A quick wash up and I was in and ready for bed. I couldn't wait to sleep in tomorrow.
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