After a great, long weekend away on a mini-vacay, we’re back at home tonight!

Saturday

We left Saturday morning for a road trip down to Central/Southwest-ish Florida, to visit the mermaids! A quick stop for breakfast at Wendy’s, and then we were on our way down south.

We found a little hidden gem diner for lunch in Cross City, Taste of Dixie Diner, with an excellent Southern food buffet, for a mere $12. It was honestly great, and felt very much Old Florida.

My little bookworm was reading this book in all sorts of free time this weekend, and I was so proud of my mini-me.

We made it down to our hotel about mid-afternoon and got checked in, and the girls grabbed apples from the lobby.

We went swimming in the hotel pool for about an hour, and had lots of fun, and we had the whole thing to ourselves.

We went to a little Chicago-style spot for dinner, with all sorts of Chicago specialties on their menu. Emmie just had a cheeseburger, but Addie had a giant meatball (I tried one bite and it was delicious). Jeff got some sort of Polish sausage dog with grilled onions and mustard. I couldn’t decide between a Chicago dog and an Italian beef sandwich (like from “The Bear”) so I got both and shared. But that beef sandwich was one of the best sandwiches I’ve ever had. Absolutely delicious, especially with that au jus for dipping.

Day 1 TikTok here.

Sunday

We had a bit of a slow morning on Sunday, waking up “slightly late” around 7:30am, then heading down to the hotel for the continental breakfast, which the girls just thought was the best thing ever. Unlimited breakfast options? Sign them right up!

Investigating the little froggie stuck to the window at breakfast.

Then we went back upstairs to the room, lazed about a little, changed into our “baby soups” (aka bathing suits), packed up some towels, and went to the car. Then we went to Weeki Wachi Springs State park! They opened at 9am, we got there at 10:15am, for the 11am mermaid show, but the park was already at full capacity and we were turned away at the gate, not allowed to go inside. And I was devastated. That was the whole reason for this specific trip to this specific area, and I was so sad!

We frantically tried to come up with a Plan B, and drove about 20 minutes north to a nearby beach. But it was in one of those little inter-coastal bays, and the water was dangerous and we weren’t allowed to swim, so we tried to come up with Plan C. All the other nearby beaches were also closed for swimming, and all the other springs were still somehow another 60-90 minute drive away.

So we finally decided on Plan D, and drove to Honeymoon Island State Park in Dunedin. The drive was still about 1 hour 15 minutes, but at least we could guarantee we could swim in the gulf, and have plenty of options for restaurants. So we finally made the decision (after much stress and guilt and upset and tears – all from my, might I add; plus some sweet, pitiful little tears from Emmie), and we started heading south again.

But first, Jeff pulled over to get me a gigantic iced coffee for a pick-me-up.

We found a fun little beachy, patio-style restaurant for lunch called Frenchy’s Outpost, with this cool fish-shaped pretzel, and I had delicious fish tacos. And since it’s a small world, we actually ran into old church friends here at lunch! One family was our youth pastor at Bradfordville for a while (The Cooney’s), and another family from Bradfordville (Libby & Josh) was actually down there visiting them. So wild to walk out onto the deck, and hear people call out our names!

After all the hoopla of the morning, and the long drive, and a quick late lunch, it was almost 3pm by the time we finally got out onto the beach. But it was absolutely beautiful! The sand was nice, and the water was so nice, and we had a great time!

We stayed and played and swam and dug in the sand for a few hours, and then we got into some dry, clean clothes. One of Jeff’s work friends lives down in Dunedin, so they actually invited us out to dinner at their favorite place at their marina, Olde Bay Cafe, and a quick tour of their boat! I had the crab salad roll, with a side salad with their Key West vinaigrette which was delicious.

They’re an older couple who split their time between their house, and living on their boat in the marina, but they treated us to dinner and ice cream and let us wander all over their boat, and it was a lovely evening. Such a nice ending to a crazy start to the day. Also, we loved the mermaid theming at the ice cream shop!

Day 2 TikTok here.

Monday

Another great day of breakfast at the hotel buffet, where our two little girlies ate a little bit of everything… We were up and moving much earlier today, got dressed and packed and ate and checked out, all by 8am.

Then we were in line at the park by 8:30am, along with at least a hundred or so others there early waiting to get in. We weren’t gonna risk getting turned away again today!

And we made it in! We had to wait in the direct sunlight for about 45 minutes until they opened and we made it in, but we finally got into that freezing cold spring water, and then we were happy campers!

We got new Google Pixel phones last week, and just like our old ones, they’re waterproof, so we had lots of fun with that in the water in the pool and the springs this weekend. We also took a TON of videos, so I’ll make a few cute little TikTok videos tomorrow, and then share those once I get them all edited together. Here’s a screenshot from one of the springs videos today though, and I just love it.

The spring water was of course freezing, and even though Jeff and I loved it, our teensy little girls are just skin and bones, and they were literally shivering after like 10-15 minutes. Luckily they had a little toddler splash area, which was much warmer and perfect for both the girls. So Jeff and I took turns sitting here by them, or swimming around the springs on our own.

And then it was finally time for the much-awaited underwater mermaid show! We’ve watched YouTube videos of the mermaids performing throughout the years, and the girls have loved seeing those. The other night when we were watching some of the videos at home, as soon as one video ended, Addie was immediately asking, “Can we watch another mermaid show?” So we were more than ready to see the show in real life today!

And we also got to have a little picture made with one of the real life mermaids after the show too!

We had a little snack after the show, and while sitting outside, decided we needed to change our plan to leave early, and get back into the spring again for more swimming to cool down. Addie didn’t last long at all this time, but Emmie stayed with me for about 20 minutes, before wanting to go over to the splash area.

We played and swam until about 1pm, then it took us forever and a day to get dried and changed and walk back to the car. And once we made it to the car, we were all drenched in sweat again and exhausted from the morning swimming and walking all over the fairly large park. We took some time to enjoy the a/c, and gulp down tons of ice water, and then we took a little side journey for a late lunch in Crystal River, to a spot my dad recommended for yummy seafood, Pecks Old Port Cove.

Addie was being super cute and silly and sweet, and just my precious little buddy. They give you these little crispy onion strings for a free appetizer that are so good, and Addie loved them and was just shoveling them right down. She also reached into the basket to re-fill her plate with seconds and thirds.

I had coconut shrimp with some sort of raspberry dipping sauce, and it was absolutely delicious.

They played on their tablets for a bit after lunch, but once we hung up blankets in the windows to block out the sun, they couldn’t fight any longer, and they both fell asleep for a late afternoon car nap on our way home.

We were driving home down Highway 19 going west right into the sunset, and although it was very pretty, it was also very bright.

We made it home right at 8pm, got everything unloaded from the car, and got the girls into a very quick bath. I got them dressed, into clean nighties, and then I hopped in the shower myself. We found some stuff around the house for some snacks, rather than a full-on dinner, since we ate lunch so late. We watched some Bluey, and then tried to get the girls ready for sleep, and finally got them both down much later than usual.

Day 3 TikTok here.

Although everything didn’t go exactly according to plan, we still made great memories and had a great weekend.

Today, September 2nd, is the 4-year anniversary of Emerson’s open-heart surgery. We’ve made a tradition of taking a little family vacation over Labor Day weekend (which is usually around the same time as her heart anniversary), to celebrate her life and her healthy heart! (Here’s the trips for 2021, and 2023; but I guess I forgot we didn’t take a trip in 2022.) We’re so thankful for the Lord’s provision in her life and her heart, both physically and spiritually now as well! And thankful we were able to take another little trip again this year.

UPDATE – here are all the cute recap TikTok videos I made today.

Day 1

Day 2

Day 3