Warning: Pic heavy post ahead!
This morning we were up bright and early (our alarm was set for 6:30 and we had plans to be out of the house as close to 7am as possible) for our summer road trip. Both kids had to be woken up... which figures because of course they would "sleep in" on a day that we actually wanted them up early at 7am but it only took us about another 15 minutes to get everyone ready and out of the house. By about 7:15 we were off and on the road to start a week of fun!
Today's drive was set to be our longest stretch. Our plan was to travel from home in Apopka to Pensacola. The drive was about 447 miles and 6.5 hours without stopping. We also knew that we would switch time zones today so we were planning on having the extra hour.
The first bit of the drive was pretty uneventful. Yesterday Steven picked up a rental car from Alamo at the airport as we weren't comfortable traveling this distance with either of our own cars. The only real issue is that down the road from the airport he started to wonder if he smelled smoke in the car like someone had smoked in it despite "No Smoking" signs plastered all over it. This morning on the drive, I started to wonder if he was right. At this point we aren't 100% sure if it is a smoke smell or just something weird about the A/C but I did give Alamo a call as soon as they opened to ask them to note our file that the car has a strange smoke like smell so that we don't incur a cleaning fee when we return it. It isn't bothering any of us though so we aren't too worried about it. We did hit some traffic on the Turnpike when we went through a toll and then came to a complete standstill. They were doing roadwork on the shoulder but had to close down an entire lane. It set us back about 15 minutes but in the grand scheme of things... that was nothing.
We brought our breakfast in the car with us so we wouldn't have to stop somewhere (and it saves some money so that is always a plus). We did end up needing to stop to take a bathroom break at a rest area along I-75 but it didn't take us long and we were back in the car. Honestly, I welcomed the random pit stops. It gave us a moment to stretch our legs and let the kids get out a bit of energy. We then drove on with plans to stop for gas around Lake City. In the past we have left early enough to eat a later breakfast in Lake City but we knew we would be later in the morning this time around. Between the rest area and Lake City, the kids stayed pretty busy with some coloring, playing with a couple of toys they brought, and some other sticker game things. They were starting to hit a boredom wall though and were starting to request a movie. We like to hold off as long as possible when we can but we knew this would be a big day so we told them we would put one on when we stopped.
After our stop for gas we put on Frozen. Really, Kenzie wanted The Greatest Showman but we had JUST finished listening to the soundtrack so we encouraged the kids to choose something else. Then we learned a few things... one, our rental car doesn't have the same amount of tint and it makes it difficult to see the DVD screen during the day which leads to a lot of complaining. And two... Frozen has quickly become a movie of the past for us. Maybe Kenzie has outgrown it as she is now often found watching things like Descendants or The Greatest Showman. Both kids were asking to switch it most of the way through the movie but we told them they watched that or nothing so they sucked it up and sang along a bit with some of the songs. Oh well. They were mostly quiet and entertained. For goodness sake, when we were little a movie wasn't even a consideration on a car ride. They have no idea how easy they have it. The movie ended right on time as we drove into Tallahassee. We knew this would be the last bigger area we could stop for lunch before hitting the dreaded section of I-10 where all you see are trees, trees, more trees, and maybe a cow (and we saw one deer but that was a fleeting moment and Will missed it... cue the almost tears). So, we decided to stop and eat. The kids chose McDonald's. After some random U-turns and what not, we finally figured out how to get into the McDonald's. Lunch was easy and it wasn't long before we were on our way again. We elected to not start a movie right away again and made the kids ride for a while and entertain themselves. They ended up playing a game using Will's geckomobile and Kenzie's Tinkerbell doll that seemed to keep them busy for a while. Eventually Will announced he had to potty again. Will has a thing a thing about pooping on trips. Last time we made this drive my mom and I spent about an hour in the visitor's center just inside Alabama cleaning him up after a blow out using the sink and a ton of paper towels. It was crazy. This time he was thankfully old enough to tell us he had to go. We were about a mile from a rest stop when he announced it so we stopped there. This rest stop was CRAZY. I wish I was kidding when I tell you that we probably drove about 4 miles once we got off the interstate in circles to get to the rest stop. We weren't the only people that noticed...
It was a pretty nice rest stop though as far as rest stops go. Once we got back in the car we started The Greatest Showman. Kenzie loved it (as usual) and Will made it about 15 minutes before falling asleep. He stayed asleep for the next hour and a half or so as we continued on our trek across I-10. This was probably the worst part of the drive. Steven was bored. I can't drive the rental as we didn't pay to have me added as a driver and I felt like I was getting a bit loopy from staring at trees and nothing else. We made it though. Eventually Will woke up and joined back in on the boring fun. I was just telling Steven that I knew there was rest stop near Pensacola that had a Blue Angel model in the parking lot that I would like to stop at if we happened to see it in time. No sooner did I say it and Kenzie announced she had to potty. So... we stopped at the next rest stop and lo and behold, it was the one with the Blue Angel! This kids thought this was so cool. We have been telling them that we plan to try to see the Blue Angels practice tomorrow but I don't think they got what we meant until that moment. We had to do the tourist thing though and take a few pictures of it. (We live in one of the biggest tourist areas in the country and watch people around us have great times on their own vacations so we enjoy those moments that we get to be the ones visiting an area and taking in all the sights.)
At this point we weren't too far from Pensacola and where we would exit I-Boring... I mean I-10. We started to hit some pretty significant patches of rain as we got closer to our exit and we knew that it would likely be raining when we got into the hotel. Which it was. We were able to check in a bit early and managed to get our stuff to the room while dodging rain drops. We got settled and waited for the rain to slack up. The kids love hotels so they were busy exploring and getting adjusted. They walked their new suitcases in today and I couldn't help but take a picture of them because they were so freaking adorable.
It didn't take too long before the rain nearly stopped and we decided to go ahead and go forward with our original afternoon plan of driving down to Big Lagoon State Park. For Mother's Day this year Steven's parents renewed our annual pass for Florida State Parks so we like to hit up those when we can because entry is "free" and they are usually pretty nice. It was about a 40 minute drive to Big Lagoon and the weather was looking pretty iffy behind us the entire way but once we got there, it was actually pretty nice. This park was more of an Old Florida style park. It did have a very small beach and we think it may have been high tide. We drove first to the West Beach and observation tower. The kids thought the tower was awesome and we were able to get some good pictures. Climbing four flights of stairs with a 3-year-old that isn't used to stairs though is not my idea of a good time... but we made it. It took a while, but we made it. The view was worth it. We then watched a man fish for a bit along the boardwalk and the bird that was following him around obviously hoping to grab an easy meal. We stopped at the East Beach on our way back out of the park and found the aforementioned very small beach. We had to remind the kids to not jump into the water as we were going to dinner after that and didn't have a change of clothes. Thankfully they listened. We have trouble containing them around water sometimes. Haha! We walked down the beach some but eventually decided we needed to head to dinner as it was about 4pm local time and therefore 5pm for us.
We headed to Quietwater Beach Boardwalk in Pensacola Beach for dinner. After some research before we left home we decided to go to Papa's Pizza. We think we expected a slightly bigger boardwalk for some reason but it didn't really disappoint. The view going over the bridge to the beach were amazing. The boardwalk was easy to find and we were early enough to get parking. When we left, people were lining up waiting for spaces so I'm glad we arrived when we did. The pizza was pretty good. We were hungry so our family polished off a large and an order of bread sticks like it was nothing.
We walked over to a small (probably man made) beach after dinner right off the boardwalk. Again, we convinced the kids to stay dry as we didn't have towels around to dry them off. We walked out of the docks to check out a boat that pulled in from the National Seashore and get a few pictures. We walked back to the boardwalk then and stopped for some birthday ice cream for Steven. I think I failed to mention before now... today is Steven's birthday! Instead of just getting him gifts we made him drive us some 500 miles so we could celebrate with ice cream by the beach. I don't think he minds.
It was getting quite late at this point. Especially for us as we are still on Eastern time zone as far as our bodies go so we started making our way back to the hotel. We had to make a couple pit stops for a few supplies I forgot ( like extra hand sanitizer and bags for dirty clothes) and to get gas but we made it back to the hotel by about 8pm local time. We let Kenzie work on her trip journal. We told her all about how we keep a trip journal. It used to be handwritten but this blog has taken its place in more recent years. She is super into documenting things right now so she really thought it was a great idea and tonight she wrote her very first entry. She drew a picture of a hotel and has been asking me about printing some pictures to put in her book once we are home.
We got the kids bathed and in bed shortly after she finished her entry. The kids may love hotels but they have difficulty remembering to use hotel voices and not jump around so between the time they were put in bed and actually falling asleep they lost 10 minutes of beach time tomorrow. Let's hope they have an awesome day and can earn their time back. We have learned that losing time doing something like playing on the beach or at the pool is one of the few punishments that works for them so we are definitely using that on our trip. They were amped up so it took them a while to fall asleep. Kenzie was first as she was exhausted from the day. Will took a bit longer since he took such a great nap earlier but as I write this now they are snoring from the sofa bed next to us. I think day 1 was a success and we have even more fun planned for tomorrow.
Day 1 - Done!
Comments
Post a Comment