I am away with my daughter and granddaughters to Universal Studios in Florida for a few days of fun and lots of walking. 🙂
Sorry I’ll miss some of your wonderful blogs. But we all need time away. See you when I return!
Off on #Vacation!
Tag: Vacation
#Vacation Recap and #Giveaway Winner!
Taking a few days from the normal routine was truly fun! I can’t say it was relaxing because we crammed a lot into a few days. But it’s time well-spent with my daughter and granddaughters. I’ll share a few pictures.
When we arrive in Tampa, we have our first round of vacation obstacles. Little Samantha’s bag didn’t arrive with the rest of ours. So, while waiting for it to get there on the next plane from Dallas, we head to the rental car place to pick up a car. Then, we go back to the airport terminal to get her bag.
We head out of Tampa across the bridge into Clearwater when my daughter notices the low tire light is on. And literally within the next five minutes, it goes from 23 PSI to 10 PSI. Yep, we have a flat. So, a long wait ensues while they sent someone out to fix it.
Almost two hours later, someone finally arrives to take the flat tire off and put the donut on. We crack up when a car pulls up next to us with a sign on top that reads “Pop-A-Lock.” At this point, even amid the frustration, it became quite funny. The poor guy that changed the tire had done a little too much meth in his life, but hey, he was nice and got the tire changed.
Once the donut is on, we head back to the rental car place and my daughter, being an attorney, was determined that they cancel the contract and refund her money. They did so without any resistance, she went to the next place and got a great car for over 50% less than the other place was charging. We finally arrived at our hotel in Clearwater at 11:50 pm. Barely in time to keep our room reservation, but as they say, “all’s well that ends well.”
The hotel has a resident parrot, so my daughter and granddaughters posed with it the next morning.
Day one – Legoland. What can I say? The girls absolutely loved everything about it!
Then after a hot sweaty day, we indulged in the water park. We didn’t get any photos because we left our cameras safe and dry in a locker.
This was on the way back to Tampa after dinner.
Day two was spent at the Clearwater Aquarium, where the famed Dolphin, Winter, lives. The movie about Winter was what prompted this entire trip. The girls wanted to see him.
We all loved everything about the aquarium. We got to feed dolphins. I don’t have those pictures yet, but they were adorable. At one point, the two dolphins kissed the girls on the cheek. They also got to feed stingrays.
The Clearwater, Florida beaches are known for their white sand and clear blue water. This was not the case for us as something called a Red Tide had killed hundreds of fish and they lined the beach. They stunk and were unsightly, so we had to walk quite a ways down to a place that was cleaner to go into the water, and even then we were a little leery of getting in it. But the girls couldn’t be denied.
That was it for me. I came back home and they went on to Orlando, where my daughter has a good friend from college they were going to visit.
I am a tired MiMi (That’s what the girls call me) but I will get rested up. 🙂
On a completely different subject, the winner of my Newsletter Giveaway of a $20 Amazon Gift Card is Michael Hall!!
Congratulations, Michael! Check your email!
And a huge THANK YOU to all my new subscribers!
Where I am
No blog today, folks. I am on vacation at Crystal Beach on the Bolivar Peninsula in Texas with my sister, my best friend, my brother and sister-in-law. It is incredibly beautiful here and the beach is practically deserted.
I will catch up with blogging when I return. 🙂
Fabulous Disconnect
As most of you already know, I recently gifted myself a vacation to beautiful Angel Fire, New Mexico. The picture above is the view from the back door of the three-bedroom-two- bath Airbnb house we rented.
At only $90 per night, you’d have to wonder why this amazing place was so cheap. Two reasons. No TV and NO Internet.
Talk about an attitude adjustment. I’d never miss TV, but I felt crippled without the Internet. Needless to say, it took an entire day to decompress and stop worrying about everything I was missing – the wonderful blogs I follow, the constant emails that flood my inbox and everything going on in RRBC and RWISA land. But, after a day I let go and thoroughly enjoyed the opportunity to disconnect.
And guess what? The world did not stop turning.
My best friend of over thirty years and I drove to my sister’s house in Amarillo and our other traveling partner, Cactus Mike, owner of Cactustown, Texas USA, met us there.
We drove on up from Amarillo and I’ll share a few pictures of paradise.
These are a couple of the unbelievable houses in Angel Fire
The pictures do not do it justice. The peacefulness of being out in nature, looking for rocks to bring back home, or exploring off-road trails is equal to nothing else.
We spent one day exploring Taos, New Mexico, one whole day skiing (although I don’t ski, I enjoyed watching!), we had lunch in Red River and hiked the Jasper Agate trail looking for treasures.
And, I even returned home with a new pair of Tony Lamas to take dancing.
It was a phenomenal get-away in every aspect. The weather could not have been more picture-perfect and the scenery breathtaking.
I’m happy to be back home and back to business with renewed energy and purpose.
I hope you enjoyed taking this mini-journey with me through part of The Enchanted Circle in New Mexico.
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