Daisy Chains

Florida - Wednesday, June 19th
07-01-2002,

Florida - Wednesday, June 19th...

July 01, 2002

Wednesday, again began early.. although not as early as Tuesday or Monday did. Funny how each day we slept just a little bit more, giggle. How totally vacation-like. So we got up, got dressed and got the van packed up again. It was much easier this time, since we didn't have the kids stuff, and didn't need the room for the kids, and thus we didn't have to life everything into to carrier on top of the van. It really did make it so much more easy. So, we decided to grab something to eat at the hotel lobby (love those continental breakfasts), but when we got in there, the smell was so awful, that I could barely stand it. We were soon on our way back to the cracker barrel (at this point loving called the crackel barrel) for breakfast. Oh Yum, their cherry pancakes are just so good, although I could barely make a dent in them. Next time, I am ordering a half order, lol. After breakfast, we stopped and got some georgia peaches, yum, to take for Cory (okay, and for ourselves, hehe), and Tonya got some boiled peanuts.. okay they taste like pinto beans, only not as good, yuck.. we gladly let Tonny eat them all by herself.

One of our stops on Wednesday, was in St. Mary's, GA, where Tonny and Mike own the house in the picture below. They used to live there, and now rent it out, and since we were passing by, we wanted to see it. How pretty, and what a pretty area. I wonder if they will end up back there someday. Somehow I am not so sure that they will, but it was neat to be able to see her house anyway.

After we looked around in St. Mary's, we headed back for the highway, but stopped for a few detours. An ice-cream float for one, and then a visit to a bath and body works. Okay, so Tonny and I visited bath and body works, and Jen waited in the car. At least she let us indulge in our favorite scents, even if they did kill her. They were having a great sale, and we picked up some neat stuff for our trip, hehe, okay and for home later. I love that store so much, and could have bought so much more if we had longer to shop, giggle. But we didn't want to make Jen wait so long, and besides, we had a date to pick up Cory that we couldn't miss. She already threatened to kill us if we were not there on time, lol.

We were all so excited when we got into Florida and started passing up bigger cities, taking us closer to our final destination (this picture was taken at one of the rest stops where we stoped and Jen and I were pointing where we were at, and where he had to get to, it still seemed so far away). We made a few stops, and we even took a detour into Orlando to at least drive by the Magic Kingdom, even if we didn't get to get out and do anything fun there. I would have loved to have spent some time there, and I know that Jen and Tonya felt the same way.. had we not had to pick up Cory, you would have found us there for the day, lol. Cory is lucky we remembered her. It was rather tempting to stop, but we controlled ourselves, for the most part.

Jen started getting sleepy, so we pulled over and Tonya drove for a bit, while Jen caught some sleep. Jen had been doing most of the driving (she wanted to, the nut), so it was nice to give her a break. It was such a beautiful ride though, and we just really enjoyed seeing it all. When we started seeing signs for Naples and Ft. Myers, we just really started getting so very excited. It was really such a great moment to realize that we were so close.

We ended up getting into Ft. Myers around 6, and didn't need to pick Cory up until 10, so we decided to go onto the condo, and unpack our stuff. We thought about getting the grocery shopping done too, but we didn't get around to that. We had trouble finding the condo at first.. it's this huge community almost, that goes in this huge circle and it was a little confusing, but finally we stumbled upon it, and made our way in. All I can say when we first walked in was wow, and omg. It was soooooo beautiful, and while I expected it to be nice, it was just so awesome. I knew right away that we were going to have a lot of fun here. Jen said that she wanted to take one of the twin beds, and so Tonny and I unpacked our stuff in the Master bedroom, which was just unbelievable, with sliding glass doors going out on to the screened in balcony. It was so awesome. The bathroom was huge, as was the walk-in closet, and we really had a ton of fun unpacking our stuff. After that, we took some pictures out by the beautiful pool, and then it was time to get going.

On the way in, we noticed that there was a PF Changs, and my mom told me that the ones in Florida were supposed to be the best. We decided to stop there for dinner, but the line was too long, and we didn't have time to wait. So we went next door to Applebees. Yum, Tonny and I even started out our night with pina coladas (Sorry Cor, couldn't wait any longer, giggle). The food was great (a nice diversion from Crackle Barrel, hehe), and while we couldn't shop while we waited for our food, the company was wonderful anyway.

After dinner, we took some really pretty pictures out by this pretty fountain and palm trees, and then it was time to head for the airport. That's where it all started, lol.. Cory is such a jokester, and we love that about her, so we thought she would think it was cute if we pulled a joke on her. Ugh, I guess we went too far with it, cause she didn't think it was cute at all, lol. We pretended to all be mad at each other and like the condo was a dive.. we worked so hard on planning it, all the way to the airport, and then we were cracking up when Cory saw how beautiful the condo really was, but I felt totally awful when I realized just how upset she was. I guess if there was anything about this trip I regret, it would be that.. but she let it go pretty quickly and all was well again. Still, I do feel bad just thinking about it.

It was so wonderful to see Cory at the airport, and to finally all be together again. We had planned this trip for so long, and it just felt so right. We were all so excited for her to see the Condo, and to start our grand adventure. It was a great night.

After Cory unpacked and we sat around gabbing, we (Cory, Tonny and I) decided to give Jen her birthday gifts (even though we were not celebrating her birthday until Friday). We had gotten her beachy clothes and stuff though, and we didn't want to wait to give them to her, cause we thought that she might like to use them. When she saw them all, she loved them, and we even talked her into doing a fashion show for us, which is so un-jen-like, but we were insistent , and they all looked so great on her. We all made great choices, and I think she loved her gifts very much.

After that, we just hung out and talked and stuff until we were all so tired that we just had to go to bed. As I said before, Tonya and I shared the Master bedroom, and we were all excited because we got to open the patio doors a tad, so we could listen to all the sounds of the frogs and stuff outside the condo, and I fell asleep easily and slept very well.