Family Florida Trip 2018

Do I get ten bonus points for title originality or what?  Other ideas were "See You Later, Alligators" or "Excuse me, Flo(rida)?"  I know, all bad.

This summer, we said YES to taking trips.  I think this has been my most adventurous summer yet as far as traveling goes!  Earlier in June, my family of four traveled up to Wisconsin to stay with friends.  Then, at the end of July, Tate and I rented a house boat with a group of friends (there were 16 of us total...I know no one believes I have that many friends) and we cruised up the Mississippi river.  We ended up in Wisconsin, again.  Guess where we went for our third trip.  If you guessed Wisconsin you are wrong and CLEARLY didn't read the title you imbecile.  Our third and final trip of the summer was in sunny Marco Island, Florida!  Did you read sunny Marco Island, Florida in the Price Is Right announcer's voice? Me too.

The four of us ventured down there with my sister's family and my mom.  We rented a house through VRBO - Vacation Rental by Owner.  This was our first time using it and we had a really good experience.  You can view the house we stayed at by clicking this link.   It was a beautiful home and they even had sand toys, a collapsible cooler, beach towels, beach chairs, a beach umbrella and even an extra fridge in the garage!  If you travel down there, I highly recommend renting a home with a pool.  It was so nice not having to pack for the beach for a couple of days but still being able to swim, especially with having little kids.  I also highly recommend renting a convertible.  We did this while we were in Hawaii as well and it is just so fun and different, the kids loved it and so did Tate and I (most of the time).

Our first day, we did some swimming in the pool, unpacked all of our things and then made a grocery store run.  It was nice being able to eat breakfasts, lunches and some dinners in to save some money.  Bringing Dunkin' Donuts back to the house totally counts as "eating in," right?

Our second day was one we would like to forget.  We didn't really do our research very well and our walk to the first beach ended up being over a mile long.  Imagine how much two 5-year-olds, a 3-year-old, my 65-year-old mother, two short-tempered 30-something males and me and my perfect sister loved doing that with all of our beach gear in 95 degree heat.  Basically we wanted to fly back home after that.  Just kidding!  Once we got to the beach, it was beautiful. 

One of my favorite things that we did was take an air boat ride through the Florida Everglades.  Our guides were awesome and very informative.  In the Everglades, we saw some raccoons and I pointed them out to the girls saying, "Look, there's some raccoons!"  And our guide told us the were actually ring-tailed swamp monkeys and for a half second I started doubting myself until he started laughing.  While we were stopped in a cove, an alligator popped up between our two boats.  Honestly, it freaked me out a little bit.  I tried to stay calm and collected since Daphne was getting a little antsy that it was so close.  I think I watched a little too much National Geographic with my dad when I was growing up.

For a fun day trip, we decided to head off to Sanibel and Captiva.  Sanibel Island was just north of where we were staying; Mom has always wanted to go there, and it is known for its seashells and sand dollars.  The red tide was there, so there were a few dead fish (puffer fish!) on the beach.  My 5-year-old nephew LOVES creatures of all kinds and he was actually educating us on what all of them were.  It was so fun to listen to him and hear him spew off various facts about all of the dead ocean life we were seeing.

While down in Florida, I decided I was going to do a "cheesecake tour" at all of the restaurants and then compare.  My sister did a "key lime pie" tour as well.  My favorite was a blueberry cheesecake at the Mucky Duck in Captiva.  My favorite restaurant was called The Bubble Room.  It was so eclectic and completely different than anywhere I've ever eaten, the food was also amazing!  Old portraits covered the walls from tabletop to ceiling and there were all sorts of antiques.  I could have been in there for a couple of hours just looking at all of it.  We also had one fancy dinner at the Claw Bar.  The food there was unreal.

Our last day at the beach, we saw a dolphin.  It was swimming so close to the swimming area.  Honestly, if I were the people that were close to it, I would have sh!t my pants because any sort of dorsal fin in the ocean gives me traumatic flashbacks to watching JAWS when I was just six years old.  Our last day at the beach was the icing on the (cheese)cake to a perfect vacation.

I would highly recommend Marco Island to anyone looking to get away for a week.  It is so family friendly!  There were so many things to do in south Florida, I wish we could have done more.  That only means we will have to return there, some day. ;)  Also, for a little free keepsake, don't forget to collect lots of shells.  I brought them home and put them in a mason jar with twinkle lights for a sweet reminder of our sweet trip and memories. Thanks for reading!

“ Travel makes one modest. You see what a tiny place you occupy in the world.” - Gustav Flaubert