May 17, 2008 – Halbrooks Online

On Saturday, May 17th, we headed to the Lexington airport to fly to Miami, FL with a layover in Chicago. The kids did a GREAT job and Elise really enjoyed her flying experience. Once in Miami, we drove 2 1/2 hours to Summerland Key to join Ralph’s sister, Jill and her husband, Mark at Jill & Ralph’s cousin’s house (Thank you, Bill & Kim, for opening your home to us….it is beautiful!). It was 2am by the time we reached our destination….LONG DAY!
Sunday – we slept in and recovered from our late night. We got groceries at Publix (Ralph’s favorite grocery store) and spent some time around the pool before getting ready for bed.
Monday – spent the day around the pool. Mark & Ralph went out on the water in a kyak that was completely clear so they could look down into the water as they were kyaking. However, they didn’t see many fish on their first excursion because it was really windy and they couldn’t stop paddling for very long so the fish were scared away. We planned to go out to dinner for some seafood but as we were driving to the restaurant, Ralph noticed the car wasn’t acting right so he got out to check things out and found a flat tire! So, we immediately turned around and went back to the house and called the rental agency. They brought us another rental car within the hour but by that time we had ordered pizza and decided to stay in for the night.
Other than the flat tire, we are having a great time!
Tuesday – Ralph played with Elise outside for most of the day while Laura and Blake stayed inside and rested. During Elise’s nap, Ralph went out in the kayak to explore some more. Mark & Jill got a little too much sun on Monday so they decided to head in to Key West for the afternoon. Jill fried chicken for dinner…YUM!
Wednesday – more time around the pool…..rough life, we know! We saw several iguanas walking across the back yard which was pretty amazing. They were about 3 or 4 feet long. Thankfully, they didn’t hang around too long but pretty cool to see!!! Jill, once again, cooked for us all and fried some fish for dinner…very good! After the kids went to bed, we watched the American Idol finale (go David Cook!) and National Treasure 2.
Thursday – we hung out at the pool in the AM. After naps, we went to Key West and met Mark & Jill for dinner at Alonzo’s Oyster Bar & Grill and went to Mallory Square to watch the sunset.
Friday – we decided we wanted to see more of Key West, so we left in the AM and went to the southernmost point of the US, drove around, and ate lunch at Conch Republic. That evening, we went to eat at the Square Grouper, a restaurant that was recommended to us by Ralph’s cousin. It was a great restaurant! After dinner, we went out on the dock and put some food (Chum) in the fish feeder and eventually a bunch of fish, a barracuda, and a few sharks came to visit! It was a really neat way to end our time in Key West.
Saturday – WHAT A DAY! We had to leave for the airport at 5am because we had to drive to Miami and our flight was leaving at 9:35. The kids did pretty well considering! We had NO extra time once we got to the airport and Blake was screaming all the way to the plane because he was ready to eat but I didn’t have time to stop and feed him. We made it to the plane on time…PTL! Once we got to Atlanta, the airport had some problems assigning us a gate and we had to sit on the plane….once again, with Blake crying because he didn’t get a good nap. We only had an hour layover in Atlanta and because of the delay, our connecting flight left without us. The next available flight to Lexington was SIX HOURS later!! So, we became very familiar with the Atlanta airport….especially when they decided to change our gate assignment while we were waiting and we had to haul the kids and all of our carry on things across a HUGE airport! It was a LONG day and we were so glad to be home in Lexington once we arrived. It was a GREAT vacation and we will have memories to last a lifetime!