A Rainy Afternoon (Tour of our House)

It's a rainy afternoon in Florida, so I decided to take this time to give a virtual tour of our house. It has four bedrooms (two master) and three bathrooms, a pool and hot tub, game room, laundry facilities, and a kitchen/dining/living room. 

Kitchen Area (Excuse the mess and Billy's crazy expression)

Dining Area

Living Room Area

Master Bedroom (Mom & Dad)

Master Bathroom (look in mirror to see shower and empty space for Jacuzzi)

Game room in the garage.

Billy and Jonathan's room.

We've been keeping the laundry going!

Bathroom #1: For Billy down to Travis

Justin and Travis's bedroom serves as the rainy day entertainment center.

Jesse and my bedroom.

Bathroom #2: Jesse and Me

The rainy view out my window.

Canoeing with the Alligators!

Today we got the opportunity to witness first-hand the wildlife of the Florida swamp land! We arrived at Hillsborough River State Park in Thonotosassa for a 11:00 canoe trip. We took four canoes; partners were Dad and Jesse, Mom and Travis, Billy and Justin, and Jonathan and Me.

Everyone gets started!

Dad & Jesse

Mom & Travis

Billy & Justin

Jonathan & Me (Stephanie)

Jonathan steered my boat!

Jesse was an avid paddler!

The trip was 2.5 hours and we went about 4.5 miles. The entire route was swampy land, which was really neat to experience! We saw several alligators-both big and small- herons, what I think were Cooter turtles, and the white ibis bird. 

We saw two small alligators laying on a log. They appeared to be about 2 years old.

This is one of the bigger alligators we saw!

The scenery was beautiful! (Billy & Justin in the canoe)

This is one of the turtles we saw.

Another Alligator! Fortunately nobody became gator food!

It was really neat to see them all! They weren't all quite as large as we expected. Mom wasn't nearly as nervous after seeing that most were smaller than us.

We all had some slight difficulties maneuvering our canoes, but no terrible incidents occurred. By the time we finished, we were quite tired from all the rowing! We arrived at the stopping place and the shuttle bus picked us up and brought us back to the park. It was a fun and interesting experience! I think a lot of people miss out on the real nature of Florida when they come here! It is a beautiful place with a landscape much different than ours back home!

Of course, this heat and humidity are what keep us feeling right at home! It is cooler than home, but with the humidity the real feel is not far behind. Today the weather was perfect for canoeing, though. It was overcast most of the time, so we didn't get too hot. And it even waited until we got home to start raining!

Maneuvering through a small opening!

One of the times Billy & Justin got stuck! They had quite the difficulties with their canoe! Following this picture, my boat ended up getting stuck even worse because I had the camera in my hand. :)

Out to Dinner...and Home Again!

Following a quick vote, we stopped for supper at Outback Steakhouse, where most of us had burgers and Dad had some kind of meat. Oh, and Travis had chicken strips. His vote depended on which place had chicken strips and french fries. But we figured any place would, and if not he could just learn to branch out with a burger! The meal was very good and we were all stuffed at the end! We tried the onion blossom and cheesy fries for appetizers and those were both very good! Thanks for supper, Grandma! On the rest of the drive home, we called Grandma and talked to her about our trip!

Then, we got back home and we kids got in the pool and swam! After this, the boys decided they could all fit into the hot tub...

(There's a lot less room than there appears to be in this thing!)

Now it's time for bed! It's going to be another big day tomorrow!

The Big Bridge

We took a detour on the way home from the beach to cross Sunshine Skyway Bridge. This bridge is in Tampa Bay and (according to Wikipedia) is about 4 miles long, though we thought it was longer. All details aside, it was well worth the drive! We were basically driving through the water (as you can see from the picture we took of the GPS when we were driving through it-no land in sight!).

All six of us kids in front of the bridge (the small dot in the background).

A blurry picture-but one of the bridge and the sign. So we don't forget the name of the bridge. :)

GPS screen

We also drove across the Howard Frankland Bridge (I got this picture from the Tampa Bay Times). The traffic was almost as bad when we were there! Not quite as crowded, though...

We found a Lois Avenue after the second bridge in Tampa!

Afternoon at the Beach

So...our afternoon at the beach was not all we had expected, but it was still fun! We arrived at the condo after church, got dressed, and headed down to the beach. Now, this beach is known for its amazing sand and we surely found out why when we got there! The sand felt like powdered sugar on your feet and it was white (though not as white as powdered sugar). We got down there, found our chairs, and headed into the water. It was very warm, especially compared to the Pacific coast. We were in the water for less than five minutes when it started to rain! It started with only a small drizzle, but quickly turned into what felt to us like a hurricane! Needless to say (I hope), we grabbed our stuff and made a mad dash back to the condo, trying to shield ourselves from the blowing hurting rain. We made it back to the dry room and subsequently decided we were done with the beach for the day. More time was spent getting dried off and dressed and packed back up than time spent arriving and swimming, but it was a fun experience! And we were able to get a taste of what a hurricane is like! Well, almost. Soon enough, we got back on the road toward Orlando.

Justin, Travis, and Jonathan watch over the ledge during the rain storm as the captivating scene unfolds below.

Justin, Travis, Billy, and Jesse lounge in the condo while Mom and Dad finish packing.