Friday, September 27, 2013

Friday Mishmash - More Florida!


You didn't think you were finished with seeing pictures of our Florida trip, did you?  Just be grateful I don't have a carousel (or two!) of slides that I'm making you look at (visits to my Grandpa were  never complete without looking at a slideshow of his last vacation...anybody else have a similar memory?).

First up, another collage from our visit to Universal Studios.  Along with the greatest theme-park-within-a-theme-park ever, they had a superhero island (with the Incredible Hulk rollercoaster, which Jeff tried to go on three times, but every time he got close to the front of the line, a thunderstorm would roll in and the ride would be shut down - bummer), Jurassic Park (we went on a river adventure ride there...did you know some dinosaurs can swim?), Seuss Landing (we rode several rides as they were pretty tame - just my speed at that point), and Toon Lagoon, which was full of comic strip characters.
I must have been missing Paco, as I took several pictures of the dogs.  Oh, and how do you like Marmaduke taking Jeff for a walk drag?  We had to go on the One Fish Two Fish ride - one of my favorite books from childhood!  And the cartoon thought bubbles were pretty clever, but I needed a stepstool to make it look like a little more authentic!
This was Ripsaw Falls in Toon Town - home of Dudley Do-right.  Jeff went on it while I stood on a bridge to take pictures - they are all funny, but I love the one in the bottom left...this was after the big splash, and the three people in the middle must have been related, as they were all doing the same thing with their hands at the same time!  Jeff is in the very back.

The morning after our theme park adventure, we got up and drove from Orlando to Punta Gorda, which is where my uncle lives.  He recommended a certain highway for the scenery, so we took it.  Big mistake - we had to go through every little town (and there were a lot of them), and got to stop at many, many traffic lights in each town.  It was taking forever - well, longer than we wanted it to, anyway.  We finally hit a stretch of road where we got to see the scenery.  Guess what it was?  Cows.  I think my uncle forgot that we live in Texas, where this is an everyday view for us!  Only thing different was that there would be an occasional palm tree among the cows.  Needless to say, we were OVER that drive well before it was actually over.

Punta Gorda was really pretty.  And very sea-centric.  I got a kick out of some mailboxes on the street near my uncle's house, so naturally I had to take pictures to share:
Not sure which one made me laugh more, the kneeling manatee, praying for mail, or the happy dolphin...the seahorse just looked startled and confused ("what is this thing and why am I holding it?").
We walked along some waterway where the first white man died in America, according to the historical marker there (May 24, 1513, in case you were wondering): 
There were bushes full of sea grapes - lovely to look at, but not particularly tasty, as my uncle discovered when he tried one.  

We had dinner at a restaurant on the water - not a great meal, but you couldn't beat the view:
Ahhhhhhhhhhh...

I still have one more place to show you, but I'll save that for next week (read, there's another slide carousel coming, haha).

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Have a great weekend - we'll be running a 10K race, and hopefully my aching backside will cooperate.  I'm looking forward to seeing my running club peeps again!

18 comments:

  1. Y'all sure packed a lot if vacationing into your time!!!!! :-)

    Thinking of you tomorrow!!!

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  2. I hope the race is fun and not a pain in the butt! (hee hee hee)

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  3. Sorry the food wasn't good, but you are right - can't beat the scenery! That's what happened when we went to Gatlinburg, TN - you couldn't get from one place to another without driving down the strip that was full of traffic, stop lights and people!

    Good luck tomorrow!

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  4. Looks like a great trip, I love theme parks. I for one, love your pictures. Keep sharing. Good luck with your race this weekend and hope any pain is minimal.

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  5. Glad you enjoyed your Florida trip (and yes the back roads are horrible with the 35 MPH and stop lights). The view was gorgeous at that restaurant!

    Good luck with your race tomorrow!!

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    1. Yep, that's what the speed limit was for too long, 35 MPH. Drove us crazy!

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  6. I love seeing vacation photos! (does that make me a dork??) I love mailboxes that have a sense of humor. When I was in college 9music school), we used to love driving by the house of someone who lived in town that had a tuba for his mailbox. When you opened the mailbox, tuba music played! It was awesome. Although, I suppose if you had to see that every single day it would get tiresome.

    Good luck with the race!

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  7. I love your pictures. I always forget to take them so I have NONE of any of my vacations. We always used to look at my Great Aunt and Great Uncle's vacation slides at our annual New Years Day dinner.

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  8. Fun post. Aw-1 fish 2 fish!
    I loved the pics from the restaurant.
    I'm chuckling at your Uncle sending you on that drive.
    What, no cow photos? :) No yarn shops in those small towns?! Will you be that Aunt that sends the young uns on the scenic route? Hee hee

    Enjoy your weekend. I'll bet Paco was happy to see you when you got back. I hope he was a good boy.
    Chrissy

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    1. Yarn shops do not seem to be very popular in FL - too hot, I'm guessing?

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  9. LOVE the pictures. OMG, the mailboxes!!!!! OMG!!! Love the pic of you and Jeff in Toon Lagoon. Are you in the "one fish, two fish, red fish, blue fish" thing from Dr. Seuss? Have a great time at the 10K tomorrow!

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    1. Yes, that was the Fish ride - you could make it go up and down to avoid getting randomly squirted by other Seuss characters, but I was not very successful with that, lol!

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  10. I've enjoyed going on vacation with you, Shelley! We did the Orlando trip last year and loved HP World and Universal. We also had a waaaay too long drive to the west coast to visit this beach my brother-in-law insisted was a "must-see". Got to the coast in good time and then meandered through one town after another looking for the exact spot. Exasperating! Love the mailbox pictures, but, as a Starbucks hometown girl, I have to say I love the coffee mug! Their new "You Are Here" collection is my favorite.
    Hope your 10k goes well and that your kinks and aches work themselves out!

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    1. I love the mug, too - saw it at the first FL Starbucks we stopped at and had to buy it. Funny, I haven't seen a Texas one at any of our local Starbucks...

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  11. What a nice trip and you can't bore me with more vacation pics. I love looking at them. I remember we had a similar road trip once when R. decided it would be nice to take a scenery road, man it took forever to get where we needed to be (don't even remember where it was). The only time I take scenery roads nowadays are on vacation.

    Good luck at the 10K but looking at the time here, I'm guessing you are already finished. Hope it was a great one.

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  12. Never too many pics of FL! :0) Those mailboxes crack me up...and I've never been to Universal. Definitely need to remedy that soon!

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