vacation! woohoo!

well, we're back from vacation...i'm going to try to sum it all up here so that i never forget the awesome last 11 days...

april 1 - woke up feeling rested yet stressed with all we had to do to get ready for our trip...threw in several loads of laundry then headed to the midwife....stopped back home for about 20 minutes then headed out for massages. got home, did more laundry...debated about what to have for dinner...in the middle of some dumb argument when 3 friends showed up to work on re-wiring our house. they promptly started tearing out drywall in the laundry room, etc. while i was trying to finish laundry. i was stressed and ticked off. not appreciating what they were doing for us. so luckily we left the house. we headed out to lowe's, had dinner, went on to fedex, target and marsh, to take care of some last minute errands. finally got home around 11. packed food and toiletries. packed clothes from 12-1:30 when dave realized that all his jeans were still in the dirty clothes hamper. started doing more laundry. crashed and went to bed at 2 a.m. the funny thing is dave wanted to leave at 3 a.m. i told him that wasn't happening...

april 2 - woke up around 8, left home around 9:45. so excited about our vacation. stopped and got some yummy einstein bagels for the trip. breakfast at bob evans in indy. lunch in corbin, ky at sonny's real pit bbq. dave got his first of many sweet teas. :) drove in lots and lots of heavy spring break traffic for hours on end. stayed in atlanta that night at holiday inn express. travelled 12 hours that day.

april 3 - got up early, drove to the florida state line. met margaret, rod, ashley and becca for a picnic at a rest area. how fun! dave and i played a little frisbee, etc. drove onto aunt connie's place in tequesta. once again, traffic was horrible. it finally thinned out as we passed the orlando exit. hhhhh....disney....

april 4 - woke up early and headed over to see the sun rise at the ocean. it was gorgeous. took some awesome pics. hung out with aunt connie and uncle dick. drove around tequesta and jupiter. saw some famous people's houses on jupiter island. ate easter dinner - ham, scallopped potatoes, green beans, strawberry shortcake. very yummy! swam in their pool that afternoon, went out for ice cream that night.

april 5 - helped aunt connie pack some stuff up for them to go back to ohio, went out to a place called the waterway cafe in west palm beach. ate on the intercoastal waterway. watched huge boats go by. had a yummy shrimp salad plate and key lime pie. went back and took a nap. played tennis for the first time ever with dave. had a great time. then we headed out for very good coal fired pizza and a salad...and ice cream again at the same place. stayed up with uncle dick watching dancing with the stars and the championship basketball game between duke and butler. could not believe how close that was! so exciting!

april 6 - packed up, said our goodbyes and drove across florida to sarasota. could not believe how many cattle farms there are in florida. never knew that. beautiful country. had a picnic lunch in lake placid, fl in the library parking lot. a little random. that night we ate dinner at carabbas, bought another chair for the beach the next day, got dave some new swim trunks, then cruised siesta key and walked on the beach. also got some starbucks then headed back to the hotel and did laundry.

april 7 - woke up fairly early, had breakfast at the hotel where we listened to some lady loudly talk to her 3 year old son, calling him affectionately "little monster". this has become our pet name for one another. then we headed to turtle beach. laid out for a couple hours. then swam in the gulf of mexico. dave went out really far. scared me till i went out with him. then i had fun! ate a picnic lunch in the shade by the beach. headed back out on the beach and walked really far. went back to the hotel. showered. realized i was burnt to a crisp. ow! then had dinner at the amish restaurant. yummy coconut cream pie. made myself sick i ate so much. headed back to the beach...this time siesta key. buried dave in the sand (that dave described as the consistency of cinnamon and sugar) twice. swam some more. watched the sun set. played frisbee. headed back to the hotel. wanted to come back the next day but my sunburn told us not to.

april 8 - left sarasota area. drove towards atlanta. lunch at sonny's. after about 7 hours, stopped for 3 hours at some random exit when the traffic got bad to shop at some horsetown place. dave bought a belt with cowhide on it. then dave drug me to an outlet mall. at this point my legs and ankles were swelling like crazy due to the sunburn and i hate shopping as it is. was not a happy camper :) had dinner at captain d's. both instantly felt sick. dave bought a 13 1/4" cast iron skillet. huge. then FINALLY headed to our hotel. this is the $160/night hotel that i got for $39.99 on priceline. it was SO NICE. my legs were in so much pain. aloed myself mutltiple times while watching the end of robin hood men in tights (that we had watched on our first date 11 years before almost to the day).

april 9 (11 year anniversary of first date!) - we decided to splurge and get breakfast in bed. that was perfect. till i spilled pulpy orange juice on myself and the bed. it looked like vomit. i cried then finally got over it. then we went swimming and soon left this amazing hotel. did the target baby registry. had lunch at moe's. cheesecake factory for dessert. then it was 3 pm and the traffic was ridiculous. headed out of atlanta. got to chattanooga around 5. traffic issues again. jumped off the highway around 4:30. drove 160 miles in 7 hours around chattanooga. never did get to lookout mountain, which i wanted to see. but did have dinner at sweeney's bbq. hole in the wall with amazing food. decided to drive onto nashville. 30 miles out of town, dave saw a billboard for the lodge cast iron outlet store/factory. had to stop. they were closed for the night. we decided to stay so we could go the next day but drove back into chattanooga first to finish the babies r us registry. by the time we got done there, all hotels within chattanooga were full. drove back out to south pittsburg (home of lodge) and the nice hotels there were full. so we ended up staying at an america's best value inn. the irony is it cost more than the night before. and it was terrible. such a contrast to the night before. and dave realized after we'd been fighting all evening about my planning and his spontanaeity that sometimes my planning pays off. ha! so we had just gotten ready for bed in the DIRTY bathroom and crawled into bed when a domestic dispute ensued right outside our door. the lady slammed their door yelling "that man ain't never gonna change. he just ain't never gonna change!" then she screamed back at him various profanities as she peeled out of the parking lot. i was scared.

april 10 - thankfully morning came and we lived thru the night. breakfast at cracker barrel. went to the lodge store. bought an 8" skillet for $4. and a chicken fryer with a lid that also is a skillet. so awesome. checked out some little clothing store in downtown south pittsburg. they had quite the selection of carhart. lunch in nashville, also at cracker barrel.delicious strawberry shortcake!!! got stuck in more traffic north of nashville where they took 7 lanes of highway down to 1. got off. bought a tennessee gazateer for $20 and freed ourselves from the prison of traffic jams. drove onto the beihn's house near frankfort. it was amazing. his great grandfather built the original part of the log cabin in the 1800s. had a great dinner. spent the night

april 11 - church with the beihns. that was awesome. 40 member baptist church in 2000 is a 900 member church today. the pastor talked about not losing focus and not keeping the faith. arby's for lunch in indiana. dessert at the lickety split, local ice cream place in scottsburg. shopping at kohls in greenwood. and home about 3:00. drove 2,920 miles. dave drove all but 150 miles of that. i love him! went to pizza hut for dinner and had more ice cream at ICP (ice cream paradise) in lebanon. that ice cream is AMAZING! so thankful to be home. sad that vacation is over but loving life together!