Striving to live authentically while pursuing holiness

Saturday, March 5, 2011

Our adventures in the Keys Day 5--Saturday

Cedar did so much better last night!! He slept in his pack n play and only woke to eat twice--which is pretty normal when we are vacation! So hopefully he's getting back to normal. The other kids stayed in their beds again as well. I think CJ needs a permanent bed mate!! She never stays in her bed at home!

We got up early, packed everything up and headed down to Key West. We figured being as close as we were we might as well take the kids down while we had the opportunity. I had never been to Key West either. My main goal was to have a picture taken of all of us at the "Southernmost point"--the 0 mile marker. So we found our way around on Jon's iphone, parked, and headed down to famous Duval St.

Let me just tell you that I was wishing that I had never taught my kids to read as we were going by some of those store windows with dirty t-shirts out front!! My kids are so naive that I knew the little ones wouldn't get anything from just reading them--but the pictures were another story!! And I wondered about Trand, but he is seriously so oblivious to everything that I don't think he even saw them!! I kept watching him, and he really never even bothered to look at them. He's certainly not worried about being "cool" or knowing what's "in" so he seriously doesn't care! :) When we got back in the car, and Jon and I were talking about it, Liza-Hill (my little nosey one) asked us what we meant. I said something about how some of those t-shirts had things on them that I didn't want them to see. She said, "Oh, you mean like bad words?" I said, "Yes, like that." She said, "Like the one that said, 'I pee in pools'?" I totally cracked up!! I said, "Yes, honey, just like that one!!" :) If that's the only one that infiltrated their minds today then we are doing great!! :)

We ate lunch at Margaritaville for the experience. It was fine, but walking in there with a family of eight was kindof funny. We had plenty of stares! But I have to say that we also had two nice compliments from people as well. That's always nice. Trand was supposed to go to a paint ball thing with the youth group today, and he said when people asked him why he wasn't there he was going to say, "I was at Margaritaville instead." :)

We walked down to Mallory pier, and the kids were totally bored. We still couldn't find the 0 mile marker. There's not a lot to do in Key West if you don't want to get drunk! Liza-Hill had seen a hammock store that she wanted to go in. We went back to that. They had a hammock chair on sale for $99 that I really wanted!! I may order it still. It would be great for the lanai. After we felt we had worn out our welcome in the hammock store (as soon as we walked in, all the kids dove for a hammock, rocked, spun, twisted themselves all up, etc.) we decided to let Jon walk the rest of the way to get the car and we waited for him to pick us up.

As we were driving out of town, at the very south end (which we didn't realize at the time) of the island, we drove by the "Southernmost point" and the 0 mile marker where I had wanted our picture taken. There was no place to park that wasn't going to take 15 minutes to walk over there, and then there was a line of people waiting to take pictures. I knew the kids would not be happy about doing it, so I snapped a quick shot from the car as we drove by! Oh well!

The ride home was good. The kids had fun laughing and playing together. I love to hear them doing that on trips! I posted on my FB status that it was a good thing they had good memories from family vacations because we couldn't afford souvenirs!! That's the truth!! :) They each got a little something from the nature museum that we went to, but that was it.

We stopped in Miami at a McDonald's. It was actually a nice place for Miami. If you are from Miami or love it, please don't be offended. But it makes my skin crawl to be in that city!! Every time we go there I just feel dirty being there. Maybe I'm in the wrong places. I know there has to be some nice places because I know lots of rich people live there, but I haven't ever been to those!! It's a scary place, and I hold on to my kids a little tighter and lock my doors a couple of extra times when I'm there!!

So we made it out of there safely and got home to a kitty and a dog who missed us very much!! We are all exhausted, but we had a great time!!

No comments:

Post a Comment