The next morning, I fixed am egg and sausage breakfast with fruit and kept visiting as I could while I worked. They drove over to Anna Maria with Mom and then headed back home. We got ready and headed to downtown Sarasota for a show at FST....Piano Men. It was a great tribute show to famous Piano Men..Billy Joel, Elton John, and Barry Manilow.....but they played others as well. It was a great show. Afterwards we got some dinner with Dan, Cheryl, Mike and Sandy and really enjoyed the evening. Mom and I had a slow Saturday morning...with a quick trip to Wal-mart. By noon Denny joined us for a late breakfast and some beach time. We laid by the pool and hit happy hour at the Sky Bar...was a nice slow day....then the surprise began.
I decided to take a few days off work and take a short trip to Daytona area. Mom had never been to see Cousin Bill and his wife Debbie at their new place on Daytona Beach...so after some planning with Debbie we had a plan.
So...right after church we headed out...is about a 3hr trip...not a big deal. We went in the back way so we were at the point of crossing the bridge before Mom knew where we were....too cool....she was surprised. We enjoyed a happy hour at their place, compliments of Bill and we grilled steaks and just enjoyed. The next day we had planned to go to De Leon State Park . It was a gorgeous day and one reason to go was to enjoy the Sugar Mill Restaurant for breakfast. It's a great place where u can cook your own breakfast. You cook anything you order but breakfast meat....we had a blast.
Let the cooking begin.....we were given to different batters...they tasted a lot the same....and we got blueberries and chocolate chips...it was yummy
And then the pancake competition began.....
M-I-C-K-E-Y.......
The starfish and turkeys....LOL
After we were stuffed we walked a round a bit and saw the park.
An airboat was doing a tour...se saw lots of fish and some manatees...it was so nice, perfect weather day.
Old sugar mill equipment
She's checking out the fish....
It was so interesting...
After checking out this park...we drove over to Blue Springs State Park...known for seeing the Manatees this time of year. It was beautiful, but not too many Manatees, we probably saw about 15 or so, too far away to get good pics...sorry.
The St. Johns river here was used back in the 1800's as a freight depot and to ship citrus.
This land had lots of citrus trees and it was perfect for shipping.
We enjoyed learning about what happened here 150 yrs ago.
Birds sat and dried their wings...
A nice pleasure boat came down the river and we saw lots of kayaks and tour boats. It was a great day to be out on the water.
Then we walked to where the spring head was...u had to look into the water to see where the spring ran into the river, but it was there.
What a great day...it was a bit warm and we'd been walking a while...so was time to head home and have a cool drink. Thanks Deb for all the driving. We got back and just sat for a bit, then Bill and Mom went for their beach walk....she does love walking the beach, but that put her over the edge, had to ice her knee when she got back. We had a great grilled chicken dinner, all took showers and off to bed. The next day we had to head back, but we were all going by way of Disney first. It has changed so much I knew they'd all enjoy a visit.
So...off to Disney Springs....another great, almost hot, day. We walked a bit, and then had a late lunch at The Boathouse....Mom and Denny posed in front of the amphicar landing....it really is a cool place.
Lunch was awesome, then we needed to walk some more.....around 530p we all decided it was time to head home....they headed north and we headed south.
It had been a great fun 3 days and 2 nites, but alas I had to get back to work.
We all slept great, Mom got in some pool time before having to head to the airport....it was a shorter trip this time, but lots of fun....glad you came Mom...see ya on your next trip...love u!
