Chasing Life

Day 2 Our first stop this morning was the De Soto National Memorial where we walked along a boardwalk/nature trail and saw a lady walking her pet ferret. Then we drove to the Robinson Preserve Tower and walked some more. While there, we saw the view from the tower, found some hermit crabs in the water, and almost got rained on (the entire morning was pretty foggy). Next, we stopped at the NEST at Robinson Preserve. One of the buildings (and the slide within) was closed, but we still had fun using the other slides, climbing up and down canopies, and seeing a raccoon (along with several lizards). After that, we drove back to our lodging to change and then went to check out the New Year's block party in downtown Sarasota. We rode one amusement park ride and then went back to our lodging, planning to return at 11:30pm for the New Year's countdown. When 11:15pm rolled around, we drove back to the block party and watched the "pineapple drop" while waiting in line for ice cr

Day 1 We're traveling yet again! This morning we woke up around 2:00 am and packed our bags into the van for our drive to the airport. We were in the smaller of the two MSP terminals but the lines were incredibly long! The line for security went through all of the aisles, across a skyway, and around the corner of a parking garage, and it took so long that we ended up mere minutes away from missing our flight. After several hours on the plane, we landed at Sarasota/Bradenton International Airport in Florida. Our first stops were to buy some cooking items and groceries, then we checked in to our lodging and rested by the pool for an hour or so. Next, we drove to the Bayfront Gardens at the Ringling museum and walked around until it closed at 5:30. After that, we watched the beautiful sunset from the ocean side of the New College of Florida (next door to the Ringling museum). Then we drove back to our lodging for the night.

Day 8 Today was our last day of vacation. After waking up, we went to the hotel breakfast (same as yesterday) and started packing our stuff. Once we got it all into the car, we drove back to Palm Springs to spend the rest of our day. Upon arriving, we decided to hike along Victor Trail in Indian Canyons and ate lunch in our car immediately afterward. The weather was great while we were walking (warm with a slight breeze), and we enjoyed seeing the Fan Palms, rocky hills, and even a tarantula! After leaving Indian Canyons around 3:00, we drove to something called "Robolights" and ended up making a reservation for 4:15. In the meantime, we stopped at the Palm Springs visitor center to eat something and finish packing up our suitcases. When 4 o’clock came around, we drove back to Robolights, still having almost no clue what we were about to see. It ended up being a nearly 2-acre art & light display created by artist Kenny Irwin Jr. The artist has lived on the premises “since

Day 7 We started today off by going to the hot breakfast provided by the hotel, and then Alana went to visit a friend while the kids stayed in the room to do school. Around 2 pm, she came back and we all went to Lolita’s Mexican Food for lunch. After collectively finishing 6 tacos, 2 burritos, and a torta, we headed to another friend's house for the evening (the same friends we saw last Christmas). After arriving at their house, we decided to go to Jump Around (a trampoline park) with the kids, while Alana stayed and talked with her friend. We all had lots of fun at Jump Around, especially playing dodgeball, then after our two hours were up, we went back to their house. While we were gone, Alana and her friend had made homemade bread dough that was then baked into delicious braided loaf bread and scrumptious cinnamon/caramel rolls. We also had some mashed potatoes and cranberry sauce left over from their Thanksgiving dinner. Before leaving, we picked a blood orange and fresh pomegr

Day 6 Today was mostly spent driving south. We stopped briefly at a couple of places but didn't have much luck finding a beach that was slightly rocky, not very busy, and open. We eventually decided to stop at Oceanside Harbor Beach because it was nearly dark and we hadn't done much of anything yet. Kade and Kye climbed around on the north jetty and played in the sand, and then we all walked to the harbor and saw some sea lions. Immediately after that, we watched the beautiful sunset, before getting back in our car. Our next stop was Mt. Soledad in San Diego. Although it was dark, windy, and freezing cold, we still had a cool view of the city, moon, and sky. After that, we drove to our hotel and found out it had breakfast in the morning and a hot tub! We unloaded our stuff into the room, then went in the hot tub for a little bit before going to bed.