We flew to Florida to start our big week long vacation with friends in our favorite family destination spot, Watercolor. Because American Airlines had the best rate that worked with our dates, we flew with a connecting flight to get to FL and back. I regretted not flying nonstop through Allegiant. We left home in the late morning and arrived in Florida at 9PM. It made for a long day of travels. Because I didn't pay the extra money per person for seating preference, we each got stuck in random places in a middle seat for all the flights. That means in rows of three people, we were in the middle between two strangers. Ugh! On one flight I had a seat beside me that was empty and Luke left his assigned seat and joined me for awhile. I felt pretty lousy on a couple of the flights from motion sickness on the decent. Another factor, Labor day weekend is considered the number one or two busiest travel weekends of the year!! The airport was so busy packed! We flew into Charlotte, NC for a 3 hour layover. It just so happened that Dan ended up at the same airport in NC trying to catch our same flight. He had been in Iowa for meetings all week and had flight delays and cancellations trying to get back. Through a text from Angelia, we found each other and Dan joined us for supper at an airport restaurant. That was really quite neat and perfect, I think God planned it that way. Dan could then ride with us in our rental car the hour drive to the Watercolor house. That also allowed Angelia to start the 6 hour drive to Watercolor and not have to swing by the airport to get him. They took two vehicles, Lizzy followed Angelia with all the "Stuff" they packed. They brought lawn chairs, multiple coolers of food, and 3 electric scooters! Also, the week before our flight, a hurricane ripped through parts of Florida making some damaged areas flooded and recovering from heavy destruction. Most of the worst damaged areas were along Horseshoe beach. Angelia and Lizzy drove through areas and cities that were complete black out due to power outage. She said it was very eerie. We finally got to our dream house, took the tour, unpacked, and waited for Angelia and the girls to arrive. They got in really late and we helped them carry in and unload. This was a new house for us and was even bigger and roomier than the last house. This house had 4 king size beds and a bunkroom with 6 beds the girls enjoyed. The artwork in the house was awesome by a local artist who uses big globs of paint to make a 2-D art paintings. Angelia was familiar with his work and said the paintings were at least $1000 each and they were all over the house! There was a carriage house/guest house attached that Jayden and Noah got to have to themselves. It was an amazing house with pool, 4 porches each with an outdoor hanging swing and ours with a hanging bed. That was my favorite!! I laid in that to read, rest, and could have slept all night in it. The house was very spacious and included a 2 car garage and golf cart. It was around 2 Am when we all went to bed on our first night. It was so great to be in our neat home, in a great place, with great friends grateful! Funny occurrence, Jake later in the week, told me that in North Carolina, you can drink alcohol at the age of 18... so he tried it out at the airport. I wasn't sure how to feel about that.
Saturday- Each morning I woke around 7am to make the most of my day. Jake, on the other hand would have slept the whole trip if we let him. Luke also did some long sleeping in the mornings. Our first morning, Mark and I took a walk. We strolled around the homes and along the streets. They are building some new homes with lots for sale. We learned that the lots are around $400,000 and the homes are around 4 million!! Not that many years ago these homes were less than half that! We love the homes in the Watercolor area, they all have the same look and feel. We headed to the Lazy river pool area mid morning and stayed for most of the day. Each day we would be in the sun until around 2:00, then head back to the house for some rest time before going out for the evenings. I ordered a margarita poolside in honor of Jimmy Buffet. Although I am not a huge fan like some of my friends are, I like some of his songs. He lost his battle with cancer yesterday. It rained hard in the evening. I was on the deck, in my favorite spot, the swinging bed listening to the rain come in. We decided to stay in for the night and Dan grilled steaks with asparagus, and sweet potatoes. Angelia really enjoys cooking on vacation. For me, not having to cook is part of the vacation.
.jpeg)
Tuesday-With only 2 full days with Jayden and Noah, we wanted to make the most of our time together. I was up early at 7 and took a bike ride around the area. It is so perfect there. The weather, the lovely homes, the views, just make it the best place to be. Angelia made pineapple pancakes and we got to the beach at 10.We enjoyed the pool, played football, (I got asked if I was a former QB.) I threw even better today. Went to the ocean and bobbed the waves. Jayden with her little pregnant belly in her bikini and Noah went out and splashed and bobbed the waves with the boys. The water was amazing.
I left after 10Am to take Jake to the airport. He couldn't miss a whole week of college and work. Everyone else went to the lazy river pool. We all took an afternoon rest and cool down before heading back to the beach in late afternoon. The kids got some cheap wave boards to take out. Unlike yesterday the waves were small and the edge of the water was full of nasty little fish. These fish were in the millions and looked like minnows. They were swarming so think and would touch your legs. There were so many you couldn't get away from them and it made the whole area stink. Noah and the boys tried to use the wave boards and ignore the fish. I laughed so hard when Noah got a pocket full of fish. He was jumping and dancing and reaching to get them out. It was hilarious! In the evening we went our different ways for dinning. The Buhr's wanted fine dinning and we wanted to be outside near the beach. We came across the perfect spot near a boardwalk by some restaurants. We ordered food from a seafood/oyster bar and took them out to sit and watch the sunset. It was a great sunset and made the coolest photo with the rays in the sky!
Friday Mark and I took a bike ride before packing up to leave for the airport. The flight to Dallas had some turbulence and made me motion sick. Once we landed I wanted to walk to our gate through a terminal instead of taking the sky tram. We made it to our gate with little time to spare. Our flight was delayed while sitting on the plane. We didn't arrive home until 8PM and hadn't eaten since 11AM. Leaving a paradise trip is always hard. I am grateful for the privilege to take trips like this. I appreciate the time, soaking it all in and making new memories and enjoying good friendship. I am so glad the kids could all be there with us. These are my favorite kind of trips, my happy place!
Comments