A couple of weeks ago Andy got a last-minute invite to attend a super expensive anesthesia conference in Tampa on April 22-23rd that had been sold-out for a long time. He got to attend for free as long as he was willing to be a "model" for people to practice their ultrasound-for-the-purpose-of-anesthesia skills on. Since he was going and would need a hotel anyway, I decided it would be fun to take the kids and have a mini vacation.
We drove up on Friday night and took the kids swimming in the pool. This was Colby's first time actually swimming (usually I just dip his feet in the water a little bit) and he loved it. I wedged his chubby self into his yellow tube and he just floated around the pool like this.
Since Andy was going to be at the conference all day both days and we are on a fairly tight budget these days, I looked up "free and cheap things to do near me" and found this placed called the Boyd Hill Nature Preserve. We went and had a picnic there, then played on the playground for awhile, and then went in to see the animals. Their website said that they have over 5 miles of trails to walk on, but for only $2/person you can take a tram tour that gives you a ride all around the trails and they tell you stuff. Since we have little legs (Skyler and Ally) and it was HOT outside, that sounded ideal.
Unfortunately, when we got there we found out that they only do it once per day (at 1pm) and it was already sold out. However, there was an older couple visiting from New York who had also just missed getting seats, and the guy had a portable oxygen tank so they couldn't walk very much. One of the volunteers there said that if they were willing to wait until 2:30 he would take them on a tram tour himself (he had to do a birthday party bird show first), and they were super sweet and invited us to go with them since each tram can hold 5 guests (6 if three kids share one seat). They even sat in the back row so I could sit up front with Colby and the other three kids could have the middle row.
We saw several alligators:
And some huge fish:
A couple of giant armadillos (those scales are recycled car bumpers - there were two of these armadillos and they were made entirely of re-purposed metal parts):
And a bald eagle in a tree:
Our guide was AWESOME. Normally the tram ride is supposed to be 1 hour long including getting out to walk around some of the boardwalks and stuff they have there, but since the 6 of us had already walked on the boardwalks while we were waiting and he was just taking us out of the kindness of his heart, he took us on a bunch of other trails and spent like an hour and 20 minutes showing (and telling) us all sorts of cool stuff. He even stopped and got us some wild mulberry's off a bush to try. It started pouring rain while we were out, and it was so much fun! We drove through huge puddles, got nice and muddy, and smelled lots of wet pine trees that reminded us of the mountains. Such a cool adventure. I was thinking I should give the guy a tip because he's not paid to do this and we already just got invited along by the elderly couple...but as I was digging some cash out of my bag the elderly guy gave him a HUGE tip and said "This is for all 6 of us. Thanks so much!" Then his wife told me "We tipped him for you, too. Your kids are so well behaved. Thanks for going with us, it was really fun." And it really was. The kids (and me!) LOVED it. It's so great to know that there are still super sweet strangers in the world that will adopt you as family for a day.
The next day we went to another place on my "free and cheap things to do" list: Sand Key Park. It was just about two miles away from where the conference was, so it seemed like the perfect place to spend the day and then we could just go pick up Andy when he was done. We first had a picnic again and then played on the playground.
Then we headed over to the beach (it was right across the parking lot so I didn't even have to move the car) to lounge in the sand. I was having a struggle getting the umbrella into the sand so I dug a hole, put the umbrella in, and then just heaped up sand all around it. It seemed pretty sturdy and Colby was enjoying lounging in the shade, but then after about an hour the wind picked up and pulled the umbrella right out. Luckily two older men behind us jumped up and helped me catch it, and then one of them stood by Colby to shade him while the other one helped me dig a deeper hole and stabilize the umbrella better. Theme of this trip: People are really nice and helpful when they see that you are doing your best with 4 crazy cho-dren!
While we were at the beach this pirate ship cruised by. Skyler and Ally were both amazed and kept saying "Take a picture, mom! Take a picture! Did you take a picture yet?!?" I had to show them the photo on my camera to assure them that I did take a photo. Kylee made friends with another girl whose family was sitting near us, and they body surfed together for awhile. The water was a really pretty turquoise. I should have taken more photos, but I didn't.
