Miami Vacation 2009

Yes, we have already had our summer vacation for the year. We were supposed to go to Hilton Head, SC in August but due to Sharon's pregnancy and being due just a few weeks from when we were supposed to be gone, we bumped it up a bit. And, as you can see from the post title, we went to Florida AGAIN!!! This time, however, we went down to Miami. All I can say about Miami is....NEVER AGAIN!!! I would rather go to Disney World every year for the rest of my life than go back to Miami. It rained and rained and rained. And this was not your typical "Florida rain", no, it hung around pouring for hours at a time. Every time Sharon and I stepped foot outside in out bathing suits, within 30 min. the clouds, thunder and lightening were there, few people spoke clear English and I do not know any Spanish. But, I can say that dispite all the bad, we had a good time spending the week with the Shew's and I'm sure that Emily appreciates not being the only child on vacation with boring mom & dad.

So what did we do you say? Well let me tell you.

Our first desination was an overnight in Nashville then up at the crack of dawn to set out for Savannah, GA. Delmar made a point to allow time for us to be able to eat at Paula Dean's restaurant, "The Lady & Sons". Sharon and I were so excited and I think Delmar was too. Well, we got there and the first thing I notice is the sign saying that they were taking no more reservations for the night. :o( BIG DISAPPOINTMENT! But, we did end up eating at Uncle Bubba's Oyster and Seafood House which is her brother's place and then we went back to downtown Savannah to have our pics taken in front of Paula's place and shop in her store.

The next day, we headed to Miami. While there, we went to Miami Beach (it was cloudy the whole time), went to Key Largo and road a really big glass bottomed boat out to a coral reef and saw a bunch of coral, fish and even a shark. I believe that night I came down with food poisoning and spent the night nausious and vomiting and was out the next day too. While I was down, everyone when swimming. We spent a day at a really cool indoor/outdoor mall-of course it was sunny while were there in the morning and we went back to get into the pool and it started storming again. GGGRRRR!!!!!!! One night, the resort offered a sitter service for the kids and we adults went out to eat. Emily and Alexis enjoyed spending time with Gloria, the lady that was on staff to do crafts and stuff with the kids. They got to do face painting, make a wind chime and several other things. She was really good with them and would just come out of her room to the pool and ask if they wanted to come in and do something.

By the time Friday rolled around, we were ready to head home. Delmar also arranged for us to have extra time in Chattanooga, TN to stop at Ruby Falls and Lookout Mtn. We had talked about doing it for years but we were always too tired to stop. So allowing time to do that was good and we all had a great time going down into the cavern and then walking up to Lookout Mtn.

Here is a video I put together of our trip.


Sandage/Shew Vacation 2009
Click the above link to see video.

Have a blessed day,

So Far Behind!

Since all of the kids are sleeping right now (Emily, Kyla and Lilly went to a slumber party last night-Tristin is taking his normal nap) I thought I would catch up on my blogging.

Vacation was WONDERFUL!!!! We went with Mike and Sharon. Most of you know that Mike was my sister's husband before she passed away and Sharon is his new wife. This is our 3rd vacation together and our first without kids. I love my little girl, but a week away was just what the doctor ordered. (Even tho I did get sick the 2nd day). Orlando isn't Hawaii but we had a blast anyway, even tho Mike was a little bitter about the whole deal.

We spent the first day of vacation (9 AM Sat. to 3 AM Sun.) on the road and spend the night in Jacksonville, FL. This enabled us to spend about 7 hours Sunday in St. Augustine so we could go to the World Golf Hall of Fame before heading to Orlando.

Our first full day in Orlando we spent at Epcot. We had been before with the older girls 10 years ago but they didn't want to go to thru the countries that are at the back at the park. As adults, we loved it! We started in Mexico and worked our way thru each country sampling most all of the food. There were a few we weren't interested in but over all it was YUMMY!

The next morning, the guys got up and went golfing at the resort. Our building was right by the golf course and by the time Sharon and I were ready, the guys were passing by and picked us up to ride the last 11 holes or so. The course was beautiful.

Delmar's trip thru the desert: An adult Orlando vacation just wouldn't be complete without a drip to Downtown Disney and all of the clubs. We were able to get free tickets from the guy we got our Epcot tickets from. Good thing, 'cause we decided "clubbing" isn't for us. We did end up at a club called 8 Track. They played music from the 70s, we stayed there for a couple of hours and just watched people. Our final trip was to Cocoa Beach. We first stopped at Ron Jon's Surf Shop to get the guys a boogie board to ride the waves on. That was INTERESTING to watch :)

That's Delmar in the middle and Mike's head just to the left:

Could have posted the other picture of Mike & Delmar but it was a bit graphic!

Since we pushed so hard to get down there, we decided to take it easy coming home and drove to Nashville the first night only leaving 6 hours for the 2nd day. Much more relaxing! But before we left, we were able to spend a nice couple of hours in pool with no kids in it. NICE!!!!

Vacation is always so nice but getting home is good too. We were excited to see Emily, who according to my mother, was a perfect angel the whole time we were gone.

Well, I started this post at about 2:45 this afternoon and as I complete it, it is 7:10. And all I got thru was vacation!