Gotta Get Away

One of my first reactions when we found out we wouldn't be bringing home baby girl was, "We need to get away! Now!" So one of the first things we did was plan a trip to Florida. We have a pretty amazing family who stepped up to offer us places to stay. So first, we stayed in Hernando, FL, where Dan's aunt and uncle just recently bought a condo. It is a really nice quiet area, just what we needed those first few days. It was nice to just escape, sleep, and play word puzzles (Dan's best purchase of the trip). There wasn't much to do in town, so we decided to head out to Weeki Wachee Springs State Park. Neither of us had ever heard of it before, but Dan found it, and apparently there was some sort of show involving mermaids. So we just had to check this place out, if anything just to say we did it. The park has a short boat ride, a spring to swim in with a lazy river and some water slides, and of course the mermaid show. The show was actually pretty cool. We watched it in an auditorium under the water behind a giant glass window. They put on about a 30 minute show, never coming up for air, but rather used special tubes to take a breath of air when they needed it. The performers could not use their legs to swim, since they had tail fins of course! They also kept their eyes open the entire time and would open their mouths to speak or sing. It was kinda crazy. We saw two shows. One was kind of a behind the scenes with some tricks and how they do some of it. The second was a short performance of The Little Mermaid. We may have been the only two adults in there without kids, but it was pretty cool. We don't regret this road side attraction one bit. 

Pretty impressive, especially when you have limited us of your legs.

Little Mermaid performance. We caught her just as she was taking a breath from their hose.

Ariel in The Little Mermaid

We also found out they are in the Kelly Clarkson "Stronger" music video. Look for them at 1:24 and 2:13

Stronger Video

 So next on our list of stops was Disney World. This was just what the doctor ordered for me. I think I felt the most "back to normal" while we were in Disney. It's kinda hard to be in a bad mood there. We spent one day park hopping at Hollywood Studios, Epcot, and Magic Kingdom. The next day we went to Blizzard Beach. It was all a blast. Wait times weren't terrible, and besides it dumping rain on us a few times in Magic Kingdom the weather was fairly cooperative.

Dan hanging out with his buddy Bill Cosby. I think he has his facial expressions down :)

Taking a ride on the Backlot Tour at Hollywood Studios

The main street at Hollywood Studios

Magical :)

So next up on our trip was Melbourne, FL to visit my Uncle Aug, Aunt Sherry, and cousin Joseph. We enjoyed lots of delicious food (thanks to Aunt Sherry), a long walk on the beach with Uncle Aug, and the longest game of Phase 10 I have ever played. It was at least 3 hours long! He are some pictures from our visit. I realized a little too late that I never got pictures with all of them :( I guess we'll just have to take another trip there soon.

A crab we came across on our walk on the beach.

Uncle Aug caught these as the sun was beginning to set.

                          We had a great getaway- just what we needed!