This month's calendar Archives Our Google Calendar
November 27, 2015
IT'S FRIDAY, MY FAVORITE DAY!!
Actually, while it really is Friday, it's a lot later than I usually post because it's late Friday night. I am a little late posting my journal this week as I have been in Florida and just got back late at night on Thanksgiving.
I left with my two daughters and one of my granddaughters last Thursday for Florida. We went down there to support Paige, who was invited to play soccer in an Olympic Development Team Tournament held in Boca Raton all this week. We took the opportunity to do a little sightseeing while we were there too.
We landed in Orlando and got our rental car okay. Then we drove up to Mount Dora, which is 45 minutes north of Orlando to see a good friend of mine, Terrie Boyd who had invited us to spend the night. However, we got our wires crossed and she wasn't expecting us until Friday. She lives in a gated community and the guard had to call her since we weren't on her "special guest" list. She was surprised to hear from us a day ahead of when she thought we were arriving. She had a bunch of her lawn bowling friends over for a party but welcomed us with open arms anyway. We crashed her party and enjoyed meeting all of her friends. Terrie used to live near us in Oregon but has since retired and along with her husband, Stan, has moved to Florida. They have two daughters who also live in Florida and they wanted to be close to their grandchildren. We had such a great time catching up and the next morning she took us for a tour of the cute little town of Mount Dora. She is so busy since she has retired, and keeps occupied with lawn bowling and golfing.
We had to get Paige down to Boca Raton Friday afternoon so she could register for the tournament and get checked into her hotel. So we said our good-byes to Terri and off we went. We reached Boca Raton in a couple of hours, got Paige taken care of and then we headed for our hotel. She couldn't stay with us because we could only have contact with her during her games. When she wasn't playing, she was training with her team, and she was off-limits to us.
Lara, Leslie and I had plans for Saturday. We decided to go to the Everglades and take a ride on an air boat. We drove to "Alligator Alley" where we found just the right place - Captain Jack's. While we were waiting for our boat ride, we got to hold a real live baby alligator. The ride was fun but Leslie and I got eaten alive by bugs (I gave a lot of blood that day). We saw a lot of wildlife, including birds, alligators and raccoons. After our ride, we treated ourselves to fried alligator tail for lunch!
Paige's first game was on Sunday but because of the weather, (it was raining with thunder and lightning) they canceled her game. My daughters and I had made plans to drive down to the Keys after her game for a couple of days (she wasn't scheduled to play again until Tuesday). We drove off and then discovered that they had rescheduled the game for later that afternoon. We felt really bad that we had missed her game but we were already half way to the Keys by then.
I had been to Key West a few years ago with Dave, so I wanted to show the girls the sights. Key West is the farthest south you can go in the United States - it's 90 miles from Cuba. We saw the monument depicting the most southern spot and the Mile 0 sign showing the end of Highway 1 which runs from the state of Maine all the way to the end of Florida. We stopped in Jimmy Buffett's Margaritaville and had a margarita and Key Lime Pie. Then it was off to the Ernest Hemmingway house for a tour where the six-toed cats live. Hemmingway lived in Key West and wrote some of his novels there. After that, we took a self-guided walking tour around Key West to see all the old homes that are still there. Key West is also noted for chickens and roosters roaming the streets. They are everywhere and are accepted wherever they go. We were greeted each morning with the sound of a rooster crowing at the crack of dawn.
We ended our time in Key West by taking in the sunset over the Gulf of Mexico at Mallory Square and then out to dinner at a nice restaurant where I ate my favorite fish, Grouper. It is a white fish that is only found on the East Coast and it is so good. I've looked for it here on the West Coast, but it is a local delicacy that can apparently only be found there.
All too soon, our time in the Keys was over and we headed back to Boca Raton to catch Paige's soccer game on Tuesday. Her team had won their first game on Sunday but lost to a very strong team on Tuesday. They almost tied it at the end but the ball hit the top of the crossbar on the net. Paige usually plays forward but during this tournament the coach put her in as a midfielder because they had a couple of injuries and needed midfielders. Paige was a little disappointed that she didn't score, but she played really well and we enjoyed watching her play. She did get to meet and have her picture taken with Brandi Chastain (who was on the US Women's Olympic soccer team).
Wednesday was our last day to tour Florida so we decided that we would drive north up the A1A highway, take in the million-dollar homes that overlook the beaches and end up at the Kennedy Space Center. Well, the drive took longer than expected and we didn't see much of the million-dollar homes because they were secluded behind fences and shrubs and also blocking the view of the ocean. We ended up driving most of the way on the turnpike and by the time we got to the Space Center it was early afternoon. After spending $10 to park our car we decided that paying the $50 (each) admission into the exhibits was too much and we didn't really have the time required to see everything. So we checked out the information center, took some pictures from outside the fence and left. We were really disappointed because nowhere in any of the brochures or web site did they mention the price for admission. But we made up for it by stopping at the Cracker Barrel for an early dinner and doing some shopping before we returned to Boca Raton.
Thanksgiving came early as Paige had her final soccer game at 8:00 a.m. that day. They won that game and afterwards, we met her at the hotel, she checked out and we headed for Orlando to fly back home. On the way back to Orlando to the airport, we noticed a cloud shaped like a turkey! Since it was Thanksgiving, we thought that was kind of neat.
After we turned in our rental car and made our way to the gate for our flight, we decided to eat our thanksgiving dinner which turned out to be a turkey sandwich! The airport was nice and quiet because most people who were traveling had reached their destination so it didn't take long to go through security. We left Orlando and caught our connecting flight in Atlanta and we were met in Portland by 9:00 p.m., almost an hour earlier than scheduled! It was such a great trip and I am so glad it worked out that I was able to go. It was really special to be able to spend that time with my daughters.
