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Florida Spring Break 2010

April 2-6, 2010

Naples Beach Area, Florida

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Welcome to Sunny Florida (Again)!

In April of 2010, our daughter's family (Jason, Christy, & Austin) invited Pawdad & Queen to travel with them, for their much needed spring break vacation to Florida.  It was very nice being invited, since old Paw doesn't really like to try driving that far at one time (without taking 3 or 4 days doing it). It ended up being a pretty easy trip, as Jason did most of the driving there; I only drove for a very few hours. For some reason, I didn't drive any on the return trip, that I can remember. It's been a little while since our trip so it's not all very easy to remember. I was unable to update my web site for quite a while, due to changes made by Yahoo. I designed my site using one type of software and had to totally convert it to another type of web design software. It's been a while since the trip but I will do my best to remember what I can...

We traveled in their trusty old Chrysler mini van, getting to Florida and back without even a sputter. We went from home to the Naples area of Florida, with only required bathroom and eating breaks. It was a pretty inexpensive vacation, since we only had to buy gas and whatever food we needed. Jason's dad previously rented a little home for six months, and was nice to let all us people stay there for our week long vacation that spring. Our son's family (Steve, Shelly, Michaella, Hannah and Michaella's boyfriend, Troy) was already there when we arrived. They went to Florida almost a week earlier than us, and left about two and a half days after we got there. We had a couple of nice days with everybody there. Tebe family had the place all figured out and was able to give us a little tour when we arrived. The house was within a gated community called Sandoval (I believe that is what they call it), near Naples beach. I remember that whenever we left the community on foot, we always ended up getting back in by squeezing between the gates, or waited for cars to leave or return before we could get back in. None of us could remember the combination on the gate; but it was written down on a little piece of paper which was always left in the van...

Our first day of the stay was mostly spent at Sandoval. We all hung out around the pool and walked around the place to see what was there. It was my time to rest up after the long car ride. Our second day was spent at Naples Beach. I'm not much for going to the beach, since I don't really care for heat, sun or water. But, it was still fun to be there. The kiddies all swam in the ocean. I pretty much stood around in my jacket and blue jeans with baseball hat to keep my head from getting too sunburned. The place was pretty nice and there was also a nice long pier there with a couple of businesses on the end that sold food and treats. We all hung out on the pier for a while because it was a good place to see the dolphins and the manitoo/manitee (sp?) things swimming around in the ocean. I remember it being pretty difficult finding a legal place to park, but other than that, was a very nice place to hang out for a day.

Our third day there happened to be Easter (duh, it WAS spring break). We got to spend the morning watching all the kiddies hunt for easter baskets and treats. That day seemed a little gloomy because the Tebe family was going to be leaving on that day. Everybody looked a little gloomy that day. After the candy search and a little lunch at the house and a little walk around the area, the Tebe family began gathering all their clothes and stuff and packed up to leave for home. After a couple of hours of packing all their stuff into their van type vehicle, they were all set for the long ride back home. I couldn't believe how they were going to all get into that vehicle, as it was already packed full, even before the five of them was to get in. I will always remember the sad look on Michaella's face (picture on top of this page) as they were getting ready to go home. Seemed like we all said goodbye about 36 times and then they were off. The last thing I saw as they were going around the turn towards the gate was Tebe's arm waving...

Queen and I still had a couple more days there with Jason, Christy and Austin, but I was already starting to worry about our long drive/ride back. Anything over 12 hours in a vehicle is too much for old Paw, probably why we never make Florida trips by ourselves. Tebe's family left quite a bit of food there for us, since they didn't have room for it anyway. I tried to eat as much of it as I could during our last two days, but was unable to get rid of it all. We did have a couple of cookouts on the little pation out back. The first time I lit the gas grill, (and forgetting what Tebe told me earlier that week), I ended up scorching one of them little sewer lizards that are all over down there. I don't think he died or anything, but he looked uncomfortable as heck. I remember doing a lot of walking in the area, hanging out at the pool (I fully clothed, of course), and doing a little bit of area shopping. We went to a local establishment for food and I can remember it was one of those places where you throw your peanut shells on the floor. The food was pretty good but it doesn't seem normal to throw your shells on the floor.

Somehow we heard that the space shuttle was going to take off, towards the end of our stay. We all got up early on that day and went outside the front of the house and looked around in the sky. We knew we were on time but none of us could see any signs of a rocket ship taking off. I aimed my video camera towards a bright star and noticed it was the shuttle! We did get to see it from the distance (don't know how far we actually were from the launch site); I just wish I would have had my tripod with me for the video camera. I had to zoom in so much, my shakyness showed up a lot. As our part of the trip ran out, I went outside to tell the local sewer lizard goodbye. Him and I spent quite a bit of time together, especially in the early mornings or late evenings. Our departure time came quick and we too had to go. Our ride back took more time than the ride down. I don't remember driving any on the way back and don't know why. It is too far for one person to do all on their own, but thanks Frank... We all got so tired from all the detours, road blocks and slow traffic coming home that we did finally get a hotel room for the night. We stopped way after my bedtime, went into the room, immediately got on the beds and went to sleep. We did get up and out pretty quick the next morning for the rest of our trip. But, we did have quite a bit experience with all the traffic. The accidents and millions of spring breaker's made it a pretty difficult trip. I'm pretty sure we were all glad to arrive safely at home...

One final thanks to the Keeton family.  If you wouldn't have taken us with you, we would have never known how much fun it would be.   Even though it seems to work out very well taking family vacations together, we always have the thought in the back of my mind that we are cutting into your vacation time. It was a very nice trip and we enjoyed the time we had together; maybe you guys can return to Florida during a future cold nasty Michigan spring... on your own. Maybe you can even fly down and back to save yourselves the agony of the long car trip! You can have more fun in Florida time that way too... Thanks again Keeton family!

PS It's about time I got this on pawdad.com, huh Maws?

Hearts, Pawdad & Queen

P.S.  Check out the photos in the Florida 2010 Photos section.  There are also a few short video highlights of our trip in the Florida 2010 Video Clips section.

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