It's Spring Break!!! Yeah! Well, actually, it started a week ago. So, what did we do? We put our house on the market, and promptly ran away.
Well, not really, but we did take a quick trip to Florida. For those shaking your heads in disgust at this, we only live about 6 hours away from Florida so it's not like it's hard to get to!
Our first day, we drove to Jacksonville. It took a little longer than usual for two reasons. First, the powers-that-be (which these days means "total idiots" no matter where you live) decided that the Saturday of Spring Break for most of metro Atlanta (and many locales north that travel through Atlanta) would be an AWESOME day to close half the lanes of traffic on the major interstates for road construction. Add to that impatient drivers, stupid-driver accidents, and the occasional cigarette-ignited brush fire and you have a recipe for multiple-hour delays in sunny weather! Well, we just avoided that whole mess and didn't even get on the freeway until Macon. That is south of Atlanta for those who are not up on their Georgia geography or think that the whole state is comprised of Atlanta and Hazzard County (the latter being a fictional place - sorry to disappoint). The second reason was that our detour route was flooded out. Apparently, a few days earlier, the southern non-drought stricken part of the state got 10 inches of rain in a day (literally). So, most of the creeks had turned into class 5 rapids. But, we got to our destination and showed Amanda the hospital she was born in and where we used to live. Well, we think it was where we used to live because we got a little lost. It turns out that when you lived somewhere 12 years ago it's amazing how you forget where everything is (especially when you've moved 5 times since then).
Our next day, we took a short trip to St. Augustine (the oldest city in America) and to Kennedy Space Center. We didn't see any astronauts, but we did see a lot of cool stuff (specifically, rockets and turtles). We learned that Matthew needs closed captioning. He raised his hand when they asked if anyone needed this...and, on another note, if you DID need closed captioning how would you know to raise your hand when somebody SPOKE this??? And, even more confusing was the fact that it had closed captioning ANYWAY even though nobody really said they needed it. It could be that the meant to say "closed captioning" in another language because we were literally in the minority. We heard French, German, Russian, Yiddish, and Bostonian. Yes, Bostonian. We have this theory that all the tour guides are from some nearby retirement community that is exclusively comprised of people from the Northeast, or of people with a speech disorder that causes them to add an "r" where this isn't one and to not pronounce an "r" where there is (i.e. "We will wartch the shuttle." and "We will paak by the caas.") The space program only uses a small part of the land, so we were also able to see lots of animals (like running turtles, an alligator, lots of birds, and buzzards!) It's a fun trip, and you could easily spend the whole day there. Plus, we got to see a shuttle on the launch pad - so cool......
We spent the next day with Great Grandpa Russell and Great Grandma Ruth. Matthew only tried to steal the golf cart twice and did get to drive it once with dad's help. He only almost threw his sisters off the cart and gave a new meaning to the phrase "lead foot." He also rode on the back of Grandma's mamasan bike (think Japan bike with a basket in the back) and watered a few of the plants in the front yard in his own "unique" way. He fell asleep 10 minutes after we left. It was the first time the kids had met these great grandparents, and we suspect the great grandparents may still be recovering. We also saw an odd sign that I think you'd only see in either central Florida or maybe anywhere in Louisiana (see picture).
We were able to hang out with Aunt Rosie and Uncle Keith. We swam in their pool and enjoyed the blackout that kept us from watching Michigan State get their butts kicked. Rosie was thwarted in her attempt to watch "Dancing with the Stars" - which seriously upset Keith (ha!) We also had fun with little Maggie, the killer dachsund. What a cool little dog (no offense to our Bucky, but she was so cute and able to jump onto your lap without permanently injuring any vital body parts).
Our drive back consisted of lots of wind, lots of orange trees, and a stop at Gatorland. We stopped there once many years ago, and it really hasn't changed even a little bit. They still had a "gator feeding" time complete with Bubba and Cooter wearing half-buttoned oversized overalls and acting as though they had the combined IQ of a kumquat. We thought about going to a few of the big Orlando theme parks, but figured that we had better ways to burn through $500. Seriously, there's not much economic trouble in Florida despite what we see on the news....
We got back and have finished all the laundry and settled into the fun routine of having to be ready to vacate our house at a moment's notice (and maybe vacate and have the people not show up). So fun, but that is real estate in hell (which means trying to sell anywhere right now). The kids go back to school Monday so the regular routine starts again all too soon.
So, that's what we've been up to for the last few weeks. We hope everyone has a wonderful Easter (or, Passover). Keep your fingers crossed that we can sell our house with no problems (and no crazy people, other than Kelly, involved).
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