Sun, Sand, and Crime Scenes? A Recap of my Family Vacation...

 Family vacations are moments that should create memories that will last a lifetime.  This family vacation was especially important because it was the last vacation before one of my twins goes to college.  We chose Orlando, Florida as the destination and drove eighteen hours straight in a car to enjoy this vacation.  I need to preface this with the statement that my family and I are not "beach people."  We have a little problem.  The moment we enter the sun's rays, our foreheads turn a bright red.  Thus, as soon as we set foot in the Florida sun, we applied SPF 100.  I am not kidding!  We knew that we had to take my daughters to the beach simply because they had never been to the ocean.  They missed our Daytona vacation last year.  We drove an hour and a half to reach Cocoa Beach.  What we had not expected was a toll booth for what seemed like every 10 minutes.  After spending $20 in tolls and $20 dollars in parking, we had reached the ocean.  I led my baby ducks to the pier, and they disappeared to buy t-shirts and other gifts for friends.  With shopping done, we were ready to stand on the edge of our country and contemplate how vast the ocean is.  Instead of contemplation, I heard, "There's sand in my shoes!"  To which I replied, "You're wearing sandals!  Of course, there's sand in your shoes."  My son's response, "I don't want sand in my shoes."  My response, "You're on a beach!"  I looked over to find one daughter mumbling that her new dressy flip flops would be ruined by water.  Once again, beach!!!  I noticed my other daughter rolling her eyes as I demanded they had to at least step into the ocean.  They did not wear swimsuits, so I think that touching the ocean was not on their agenda.  After 20 minutes, I conceded defeat and rounded up my ducks for the walk of exhausted, hot retreat.  We ended up at a Wendy's eating burgers.  As we drove home, my husband said he would not pay another $20 in tolls, so he found a route that would lead us back to the resort.  This route would only take an extra hour and a half of time, but as he said, it would be an adventure.  Thirty minutes into being in the middle of no where, we came across a man on the side of the road under a colorful umbrella selling gator jerky.  Most people would say sketchy, but not us.  My husband pulled over and jumped out only to return with two ziploc bags of warm homemade jerky.  It was really hot outside.  After being assured the guy could run credit cards, so it must be legit, we nibbled on questionable jerky and continued on with out adventure.  After an hour of being even further into the abyss of no where, we came across four sheriff's cars surrounding a small car on the side of the road.  Crime scene tape was going up and my family mentioned the dead body with legs sticking out from under the car.  I was feeling really secure with our adventure.  Eventually, we returned to civilization and avoided all tolls.  Let's not talk about the fact that we spent more than $20 in gas to avoid the tolls.  It wasn't about the gas, but the adventure.  The next day, we decided to eat fun.  We found a spot behind a flea market that had 20 food trucks.  That had to be good, so we decided food truck night would be fun.  We approached and quickly realized this was not the tourist section.  All signs were in Spanish, along with all the workers only speaking Spanish.  Between my high school broken Spanish and my husband's finger pointing, we ordered some stuff off of the menu and waited for our food.  Imagine my surprise when I had a big plate of octopus and plantains sitting in front of me.  It was a plate full of chewy goodness.  We created a scavenger hunt that required the kids to take a picture with whatever was on the scavenger hunt.  I loved it!  My kids were asking to have their photo taken with people in Disney shirts and driving Mustangs.  After watching grown men pretend joust at Medieval Times and hiking around St. Augustine and running to beat a storm back to the car, we topped the vacation with a family photo.  I do this every year, and since we were in Orlando, I had to get a Disney photo.  I can say that it was an amazing vacation filled with memorable moments.  So my challenge to you is to find adventure wherever you are.  It makes the best memories, and memories are the only things that last forever!

Have a great week high-heeled warriors!