Saturday Summary

Today we headed out to Siesta Key for breakfast. We found the beach and the village no problem, not far from the condo at all. We are figuring out where stuff is on Bee Ridge Rd., most notably the Starbucks…
The Siesta Key village area was nice, the beach looked gorgeous. We ate at a place called Napoli's, and the breakfast was decent.
After breakfast we walked around a little and found a bunch of cool stuff in the Beach Bazzar store where we ended up spending most of our time. Justin got a cool Pirate Beach Chair and a skim board. The girls got some other beach essentials and we headed back by the beach. By this point (around noon) the beach, and parking lots were full and we decided to head back to the condo.
The kids swam in the pool for a while and we relaxed a bit until it was time to go over to Peter and Elaine Allen’s house for the evening.
Their place was really cool, we all really thought Pete’s Pub was neat, and the house in general was beautiful. Justin swam in the pool, and Quincy the dog was flustered by his swimmies (my theory). Apparently he would usually swim around with him, but he wasn’t up to it. We had a great dinner and really enjoyed our time with them.
Back to the condo for the night.
Regarding the pics below... I managed to fail to get a good shot of our gracious hosts. We should have set up some kind of group photo of all of us by Pete's Pub, or in front of the house. Sorry.

One side done... Now flip...

Chillin...

Happy frog :)

Relaxing @ pool

... now how does this thing go on? 

Poolside @ tippecanoe...

"Hey you two in the pool... over here right NOW!"

Princess...

... and the flying duck.

Quick dip in the pool. 

Like my bathing suit?

Breakfast @ Siesta key...saturday morning.. Obviously still waking up!

Friday Summary

A quick dip in the pool for the kids who woke up full of energy and exicted to be here at Grandma Allen’s condo in Florida! So over to the pool at about 8:30am for a swim.
After that I mentioned that we might try to go over to Busch Gardens given that it was still a weekday and we might have luck with the crowd level.
That was an immediate consensus and soon we were off and on our way. Back north on rte 75 to Tampa. We found the Park with no trouble and pulled in, then took the tram from the parking area over to the main entrance.
It was a beautiful day and we were all excited. Amanda, Crystal and I have been to the park before but none of us for a very long time, and of course it was Justin’s, and Jenn’s first time at a theme park.
We stopped and ate some lunch, at humorous prices, to get that out of the way and then we went off into the maze of paths and exhibits. There were so many exotic animals, and displays that it took us a while to figure out where we were going.
The kids had up close experiences with a friendly group of flamingos. There were Elephants to look at and all kinds of birds, all over the place. We even passed a small rhinoceros on the way to “Timbuktu”.
When we got there we were able to try some of the rides, and Justin was able to go on the Scorpion, his very first rollercoaster, with a full loop-de-loop and everything. There was also the Sandstorm, which I remembered from my experience long ago and he liked that a lot too.
Crystal and Amanda went with Justin on the log flume, and they had a terrific time getting soaked.
I had been eyeing the massive roller coaster the “Sheik-ra” but Amanda wasn’t so sure she wanted to go. We found a section for smaller kids and Crystal took Justin and Jennifer to “Dragon Land” and the two of them tried some rides together. Meanwhile , Amanda had come around on riding the big coaster. So we went. There was only a short wait (for all the rides which was great) and soon she and I were buckled in and ready to ride the Sheik-Ra!
That was quite a ride. A massive vertical free-fall and loops, another freefall that sends you underground then speeding across the surface of a large pool. Really cool. Despite all the screaming, when we pulled into the start area again Amanda said… “I’d do it again.” So we did. Twice.
By the time the park was closing we were all pretty much done. The kids were spent, and we drove back to Sarasota and put Jenn down.
As would be their regular routine Amanda and Justin watched a movie on the laptop and sat together until poor Justin just collapsed.

Moonlight and the palms...

[EDIT] pic didn't work.

Farewell

Tram back 2 truck.

The Guy with the stroller in the front of the tram...

Happiness is a cold french fry.

Popcorn-man! ...soaked.

Poor jenn has had a long day.

Woo-hoo!

Busch gardens waiting for the sandstorm. J is so excited that he can go on the rides.