Well, our Florida trip is done. Here are some randomness highlights:
- We took this trip in our 2001 Toyota Corolla. It's teeny, but that's fine. The kids are now totally used to driving in the little car (the other day Miciah said, "Mom, why do you call it 'the little car'? We only have 1 car. Why not just call it 'the car'?" I hadn't thought about that in years. At one point we had 2 cars, and the Corolla was the littler one. I guess the distinction just stuck). When we first starting using the Corolla for long trips, it was difficult. The kids were younger, they were all used to having their own space, and there were 2 car seats to shove into the back seat. But that was almost 2 years ago. We took a gamble that this trip would work out fine. And it did.
We stopped and saw some old Cincinnati friends who now live in North Carolina. As we were getting back in the car to leave, the 11-year-old said, "You drove here in this?" Yep. "Where did you put your stuff?" In the trunk. "Where did you sit?" In the seats.
Her mind was blown.
That little car now has 160,000+ miles on it. We want it to be Miciah's first car, so it just has to last a few more years!
- We stayed in a lot of hotels. This trip was half work and half play (hence, nearly the entire thing was paid for. Free trips are AWESOME!), so Rob visited with clients in Augusta, GA and Gainesville, FL. We stayed in Marriott hotels. Rob and I still walk into every hotel he stays in and say, "Do you remember traveling when we were kids? It was like Motel 8's and Best Westerns. The Red Roof Inn was the "nice" hotel. Can you believe you get to stay in Marriott hotels when you travel?! That's amazing!" Apparently the secret to thinking things are amazing is to set your bar really low.
Anyways, my favorite part of the hotel stays is when we paid for our own hotel in Winter Haven, FL (where Legoland is). It was not, of course, a Marriott, because it was on our own dime. As we were walking to our room, Elijah said, "This is our hotel? This is a nasty hotel. Why couldn't we stay in a Marriott?" Come on, we paid $80 for this hotel! And cue the "When I was a kid / You should be more grateful" speech.
Our kids are hotel snobs.
- I love to travel and dream. I told Rob, "We could live here" about 50 times. Augusta, for instance, was beautiful, green, and comfortable. It's not a city so much as a really big suburbia. I loved it. But I doubt it has a Deaf community to speak of, so it's out. St. Augustine, on the other hand, does! I SO would love to move there. Other than the fact that I don't particularly like the heat, sun, sand, or salt water. Those are minor details. Deaf community, including Deaf Mormons?! Yes, please!
- We swam a lot. Like, a lot. Well, I didn't. I mostly sat by the pool / on the beach and watched the kids swim. They are huge fans of the water. My favorite pool quote came from Teancom, and the conversation went like this:
Me: Teancom, don't run around the pool.
Tank: I'm not running. I'm speed walking.
I look at Tank sideways.
He looks at me sideways.
Me: Fine. Don't speed walk around the pool.
(Older woman sitting by the pool giggles.)
- We all got sunburns, at varying degrees. The kids were a little sun drunk for a good day after our Day at the Beach (on July 4th! Complete with BBQ'ed hotdogs! We're so American). Rob's back was so sunburned that he went to bed that night shivering, which alarmed me somewhat.
Then there was me. I tried super duper hard to avoid the sun on Independence Day. We were at the beach for 7 hours, and I was under our tent most of that time, but I must have been standing half in the shade, half out for part of it, because my legs from the knees down were SO red by the end of the day. My legs swelled up to 9-month pregnant size, particularly my left leg, which was obviously hit harder. And for about 4 days, in the morning when I got out of bed my legs from the calves down cramped up bad. Like, crying and sitting back down before trying again bad.
This, however, was totally fascinating to me. I didn't know that those were symptoms of a sunburn. Sun poisoning, people kept telling me. I watched it, made sure I wasn't showing other symptoms. It was a neat experience for me. "Check out what happened! Have you ever heard of that happening? Crazy, right?!"
I wore jeans the entire rest of the trip. ... I brought exactly 1 pair of pants.
Elijah's sunburn came on our last day when he decided to swim in the pool for 5 hours without the swim shirt he'd been wearing all summer (swim shirts are genius). I didn't push hard enough for him to wear it, and I didn't even think about sunscreen. He was hurting for a while. Poor kid.
- The kids were ready to come home. We left Gainesville after Rob was done with his clients at around 1:00 p.m. Immediately the kids said, "Can we drive the entire way home tonight?" It's 11.5 hours according to the GPS, we told them. And Dad's company will pay for the hotel stay. And we can make it a short drive tomorrow. They all said, "So?"
So we went for it. We didn't make it in GPS's overly-optimistic time, but we were home by 1:30 a.m. So, that's pretty good. Other than Atlanta traffic, we made really good time. The kids were super motivated to drive the whole way. Their potty breaks were hyper short, and they didn't beg to get out of the car. They got along and were happy and quiet. Sweet!
About 4 hours from home we decided we would be happy to stop for the night. We asked the kids how they felt about it. We explained that the next day would only be a short drive, and we could be home by noon. "What do you think?" we asked.
Miciah: Okay, that's fine.
Elijah: Yeah, that's fine.
Teancom: Yep, great. Only 4 more hours. Keep driving.
It was too adorable.
The drive wasn't bad, but because it was so late, the problem was that I laid into Rob and detailed all the ways he falls short. This is what I do when I'm tired. Usually when I notice that I'm doing it, I just go to bed. This time, I just kept talking. That time I went to give him a hug and he didn't give me a good hug back because he doesn't love me. That time I wanted him to be excited about planning a future trip with me and he wasn't excited, so that probably means that he hates me and doesn't want to spend time with me ever again. That time I tried to tell him something and he was checking his e-mail, and he didn't say, "Just a second," so he doesn't want to listen to me when I talk to him because he probably thinks I'm not worth listening to.
I think the last hour and a half was pure irrational, negative drivel. Go, Tamra!
And that was all the randomness from the trip that I wanted to report. Actual trip report, with pictures, to come.
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