FINALLY...our parent's visit has made it to the blog! We had SO much fun with all of our parents coming to see us! My parents came in late February, Clay's dad & stepmom came in March, and Clay's mom came in April! Three consecutive months of family time - we were incredibly thankful to have time to spend with each of them. Here's a recap of our visits!
My parents came to celebrate my 30th birthday and we filled the weekend with as much as possible! They arrived on Friday and came to visit my school to meet the kiddos. They have met 7 of my 8 classes except my 5th grade group in NC (before we moved here.) They brought mechanical pencils and answered several cute questions from the kids & then it was off to Gainesville. They have heard me obsess over how much we LOVE Satchel's Pizza, so we took them there for dinner. YUM!
Then on Saturday, we headed towards St. Augustine and met Clay's cousin Jaime for breakfast at the Cool Moose Café before being tourists for the day. This place was uber tasty and had a fabulous atmosphere - highly recommended!
After we were full and ready for some sightseeing, we got tickets for the Trolley tour. These deals are great: you buy 1 ticket that lasts ALL day & it takes you all over town, telling you history, stories, and fun facts in between every stop. It was the perfect thing for my parents who had never been to St. Augustine! They really enjoyed it. Also, if you can't tell by the photo below, it was quite chilly that day (of course - boo) but we bundled up and enjoyed it anyways!
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| group selfie: Trolley tour! |
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| Dad's sticker...and Jake. Life is so good. |
Castillo de San Marco stop:
They were having a cannon demonstration on top of the Castillo.
Then we stopped for lunch & all got these yummy "electric lemonades" except Mom.
Someone had to be responsible! :)
Of course we had to fit in a State Park! It basically took 10 minutes to park and walk out to where the Fort used to be and back. Because it was a part of Spain, it was a safe haven for runaway colonial slaves. This is in our 5th grade social studies curriculum so it was really cool to see it after I taught it!
I've learned so much about FL history this year.
We took a walk on the Vilano Beach Pier before dinner at CAPS (another fave of ours!)
View from the CAPS dock while we waited for our table: great sunset, great food.
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Dad & I probably took 50 photos to get the flag
blowing just the right way! |
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| Believe it or not, we were in FL! It was COLD that night! |
Saturday was much warmer so we went to Ichetucknee State Park and took my dad kayaking for the first time ever! My mom isn't super comfortable with smaller boats so she set up beside the gorgeous head spring, people-watched, and enjoyed the nice weather while we taught dad our kayak tricks. He was the cutest thing as he was getting in and acclimated. Here are some early shots in the trip:
We even got a quick selfie before "it" happened. Yep. He tipped within the first 5 minutes!
Poor dad! So there's this huge tree that has fallen over the river and you have to angle your boat just right or the current will whip you under slightly sideways and cause you to lean over too far and tip as you are trying to fit under it....and yea, that happened. The water is 72 degrees year round (only about 2 feet deep) so it's quite the shocker if you are SUBMERGED and aren't expecting it! We quickly turned around to help as he walked to the side where he could dump the kayak out and crawl back in. No keys. No wallet. No problem! My mom had everything :)
He did a fantastic job!
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| post-flip :) still smiling |
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| I love this one. |
Then to top his first trip and first flip all off, WE SAW MANATEES!
In March, Clay's dad and stepmom stopped by and stayed with us on a Wednesday night as they traveled to Sarasota to visit her son and daughter-in-law who had just announced they were pregnant! After they arrived, Robin got a really bad stomach virus and was very sick through the weekend. They came back through on Sunday and we took them to the Great Outdoors for dinner. They had to head back Monday morning so it was short but sweet!
Then Easter weekend, Clay's mom came down for a visit! Her friend's daughter just moved to St. Petersburg, FL and wanted to visit as well so it worked out perfectly. She basically stopped here to drop off Liz, drove down and visited her daughter while Liz was here with us, and then drove back up and then they went home together a week later.
Unfortunately I had to work on Good Friday but Clay had the day off. They went to Camp Blanding, a military training facility where Clay's grandfather had trained for WWII. It was a cloudy and rainy day but everything let up while they were visiting!
After their visit, they came and picked me up at school and we went to The Top in Gainesville for dinner. I am obsessed with their black bean burger! We all enjoyed our meals (I know...no pictures of dinner...boo!)
Saturday morning was packed full of fun - A STATE PARK! First, we had lunch at Becky Jack's Food Shack. It was SUPER yummy!
First up:
Weeki Wachee Springs. This park is famous for one of the most unique things I've ever experienced in my entire life: MERMAIDS! You can also take a river boat cruise and canoe or kayak on the Weeki Wachee River. The park features a first magnitude spring and a 400-seat submerged theatre for watching the live mermaid show. Yep, you heard right, LIVE MERMAID SHOW.
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| Clay and his mom, Liz, waiting to board the River Boat! |
After we got back from our boat cruise, we headed to a reptile show where the two park employees put on an extremely entertaining show. I guess you'd have to be pretty funny when you're competing with mermaid shows all day.
Then, it was time for the show. We sat in an underwater theater right up front to witness the mermaid action. They put on a version of "The Little Mermaid" right in the head spring! You'll see in the pictures below that they have these breathing tubes they use. They basically stay underwater with their eyes open the whole time and when they need air, they breathe out of this tube instead of coming up for air. The story was recorded and they mouthed the words as they were underwater too. It was pretty impressive!
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| Mermaid in Training |
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| This is a top view of the head spring they performed in. |
After getting our Mermaid fill, we drove over to the Gulf Coast so Liz could see what it looked like and stick her toes in!
We had dinner at the Great Outdoors (no food pics again!) It was fabulous of course - and yes we love to take visitors here! If you decide to visit, it will be on the list!
On Easter Sunday, we visited several more State Parks! This time we headed towards Tallahassee and knocked out quite a few. First stop was at the
Letchworth-Love Mounds and Archaeological State Park. This park is fairly new and pretty quick to see it all. There are three mounds that were built by Native Americans and the exhibits try and give you an idea of what it would've been like during that time.
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| Main mound |
Next up is
Natural Bridge Battlefield. This park is the site of the second largest Civil War battle in
Florida and where the St. Marks River drops into a sinkhole and flows underground for one-quarter of a mile before reemerging. They also do reenactments in March of this battle. There were a few cookouts and egg hunts going on while we were visiting.
Next we drove out towards the water and found this cute café for lunch. I'm pretty certain that we will be back in October for the Stonecrab Feast!
After lunch, we hit up another park,
San Marcos de Apalache. The first fort was built on this site in 1679 and was once occupied by Andrew Jackson until the early 1800s. Spanish, English, American, and Confederate forces were once here as well.
The last park we visited that day was Wakulla Springs. They have an old hotel on site and give glass bottom boat tours. We missed the boat tour time but enjoyed walking around and checking things out.
What an enjoyable Easter Sunday and visit with Clay's mom! We visited many parks and were glad that she could experience our Christmas present with us!
We can't wait until our parents & other family members come visit again!
As always, you're welcome ANYTIME!
