----- Shirley ----: spring break

Showing posts with label spring break. Show all posts

Thursday, March 31, 2011

Last Evening in Florida

Our last night in Florida and we’re going out to eat at a Floridian Institution – Mel’s Diner - known for its food and reasonable prices. Let’s not forget retro styling, which I always appreciate.

Even at 5:30 on a Wednesday evening, we had to wait a little bit for a table to open up. The kids didn’t mind – the weather was gorgeous and they could goof off outside.

Afterwards, I realized that the sunset would be really nice and if I could convince the rest of them to head over to the beach, we could watch the sunset along the water. But alas, no one wanted to go with me! Instead, we pulled into a gas station as the sun was starting its descent.

I guess a sunset at the gas station is what I get to enjoy on our last evening in Florida.
Once we returned to my parent’s place, the kids wanted to take one last dip in the clubhouse pool. We allowed them to swim as we supervised (the pool closes at “dusk”, so we may have stretched that rule - depending upon your definition of “dusk”).

Taken with my iPhone - I thought the street light looked like the moon coming up along the water.

As we finally left the pool, I took a picture of the final remnants of daylight over the pond.

Tuesday, March 29, 2011

Florida - Family Pictures

Unfortunately, all family visits must come to an end, and life must go back to their normal rhythm.

We really enjoyed our relaxing vacation in Florida - my mother and father were great hosts!

And as usual, we must have our standard "group picture" - taken in the screened in lanai:

I should have positioned Scott differently - the palm looks like it is growing out of his head!

This one is a little better, although you can see the remote control in my father's hand (Brian held it in the last picture):

Of course, we have the outtake:

And the rejected background:

A bonus - Erica let me take a picture of her:

She spent a lot of time curling her hair and I thought it was so pretty.

And we have a wrap on Spring Break Family pictures

Saturday, March 19, 2011

Farmer's Market and Wetland Preserve

Saturday morning - and it's Farmer's Market time.

But that's after a nice early morning run as the sun rises -

It's perfect running weather - mid 50s when I start and mid 60s when I finish - this means shorts and a t-shirt, the first warm weather running of this year.

I go to the Farmer's Market with my parents - they eat lots of fresh vegetables and fruit. I picked out two mangoes (they were delicious) and a pair of sunglasses (I left mine in IL).

But most of all, I like looking at all the beautiful produce.

Today's family outing - the wetland preserve - a large wetland area, complete with lake and board walk that winds through the 2500 acre facility. It was a great way to enjoy the evening.

Crocodile Lake, where we saw a crocodile, sunning himself on dock:

Scott points out the Croc to Erica:

I didn't capture it well at all (and hence deleted the picture), but on the left side of the lake, there's a grove of trees where hundreds of birds roost at night. In the evening, they fly back to the shelter of these trees. Next time I'll bring my zoom lens to capture this amazing sight.

Friday, March 18, 2011

Tradition - Mini Golf

Friday - March 18
It's our second day on spring break - the weather is perfect. I ran 4.5 miles in the cool of the morning, then relaxed around the pool, and did some reading (I'm reading The Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother).

The kids slept in and played in the pool. We have one or two excursions planned, so our main activity will be relaxing.

Today's after dinner activity is a tradition for our family - Mini Golf at Castle Golf.

I have at least two other pictures of the kids in these stocks - it's fun to see how they change over the years.

As we rounded the back nine, I noticed the moon rising in the sky. Tomorrow is the "super moon", but tonight's moon is really nice, so I snapped a couple pictures.

As usual, Scott had the lowest score, then me, then Brian and lastly Erica.

I don't think the kids really care about the scores - just that we had a good time.

Thursday, March 17, 2011

Spring Break Recap - Travel to Florida

I can't believe we've been back for a day and I think we want to go back to Florida, where the sun, warmth and ocean breeze soothes the soul. All in all, we enjoyed our relaxing visit with my parents in Fort Myers. We were blessed with perfect weather - and for mid-March, the weather, even in south western Florida can be fickle.

We started our trip Wednesday evening, driving to Indianapolis. With an early Thursday morning flight, I estimated we would have to leave at 2am, so we opted to stay in a hotel close to the airport instead.

I like taking pictures while we drive. My iPhone makes it even more fun.

The kids were so tired, they didn't even go to hotel's pool. Or, maybe that's because we arrived so late and it was closed.

We still had to leave the hotel at 5:30am - that's really early [the equivalent of 4:30am Central Time, and when you factor in the new daylight savings time, our body clocks think it's 3:30am]. Our plane took off right at 7:00, still shrouded by the inky black of night. And I realized my inadvertent genius of selecting seats facing east - we would be treated by a sunrise while airborne.

The only problem - Erica had the window seat. At least I was in the middle, but she's not all that tolerant of her mom leaning over her with that big lens. Add in my camera's need to emit flashes of light while attempting to auto focus at the dark subject and let's just say she was complaining through clenched teeth. I was only permitted to take one exposure, and I opted to manually focus.

The beauty in taking the first flight out to your destination - you can be at the pool by noon (or in our case, by 11am!).

Tuesday, March 24, 2009

86/365 - St Louis Arch

A trip to St Louis wouldn't be complete without a trip to the top of the Arch. This was Grandma's first trip to the top, and our 3rd time. Even after several trips up, it was still enjoyable.
The high winds added some thrills to the trip - you could feel the Arch moving with the wind gusts!

A Panoramic view of Downtown St Louis:

To get the full effect, click to access my flickr stream and select the bigger size. I used AutoStitch to create the panoramic from 4 different photos.

Shirley and Scott at 632 feet:

Looking up at the Arch:

Monday, March 23, 2009

85/365 - St Louis Zoo, Union station

On Monday we ventured to the St Louis Zoo. The last time we visited, we only saw a fraction of the exhibits - in the summer, the kids really melt in the humid St Louis sun. Today's spring weather was perfect.

The Humbolt penguins don't mind the warmer weather and enjoyed being outdoors.

The Emperor penguins thrive in cold temperatures. The exhibit is maintained at 40 degF and even at those cool temperatures, these guys gathered around the air conditioning vents.

After dinner on The Hill, we explored Union Station where Erica, Brian and Shirley jumped on the trampoline / bungee cord Power Jump.

Sunday, March 22, 2009

84/365 - City Museum Monstrocity

A visit to The City Museum in St. Louis elicits many emotions - wonder, awe, fear and determination. Labyrinths of tunnels, climbing structures, multi-leveled slides constructed of various materials dominate the eclectic and artistic facility. Perhaps the museum's most impressive feature - an enormous outdoor climbing structure called "The MonstroCity".

At first, we (the adults) let Brian (the most adventurous) climb and explore while we remained spectators.

But it didn't take long for the rest of us to join in the adventure of climbing up some wrought iron structure into gutted planes, wire cages and the like.

Brian and Scott maneuver across a wire tunnel to reach the 7 story high slide.

I'll post more pictures I as get them processed (we took over 180 pictures over our 3 day trip).

Tuesday, March 25, 2008

Spring Break, part 2

Auntie Teresa, Uncle Ray and cousins Zachary and Matty arrived Friday morning. By the afternoon, they were brave enough to swim in LaoLao and LaoYeh's unheated pool:
Matty
Brian
Zach

Sunday morning and we were greeted by really cute Easter gifts:

Zach and Matty dig into their Easter baskets:

The kids and their Easter booty

After lunch at Duval Street Seafood Company (aka "Blah Blah Seafood"), I forced everyone to pose for a group photo. Under pressure, I couldn't figure out how to increase the self timer from 2 seconds. So Scott took this picture.

And alas, we headed back up north where we were greeted by snow showers and early morning frost.

Monday, March 24, 2008

Spring Break Sampler

Here are a sampling of pictures from our Spring Break adventure in warm, sunny Florida.

Scott waves as he and Erica embark on the Sheikra coaster in Busch Gardens (note - it's a GREAT ride). Erica rode on it 5 times, 2 times with Scott and 3 times with me.

Thrill seekers on the Montu Coaster.

Brian steers boat number 6 (while Mommy and Daddy enjoy some Budweiser beer from the Hospitality House).

Back in Fort Myers, we went horseback riding.

You can't go to Florida without playing a round (or two) of Mini-Golf. Our favorite place is Castle Golf.

We hit Fort Myers beach on Thursday - a storm threatened the day's planned activities, but it blew inland and soon it was sunny and warm again. We waited an extra hour on the beach while the storm past, and Erica dipped her toes into the gulf waters.

Then we were off para sailing. This year, Brian was brave enough to experience 1200 feet in the air (but he was a little nervous when he started up). Everyone on the boat gave him a High-5 when he completed his flight.

Hanging out on the beach chair:

Erica and Daddy along the water's edge (that's the Fort Myers Beach pier way in the background).

More pictures to come.....