A very very crude map drawing of what our paths looked like!?

We all knew we had to leave the house in a half hour to pick up Grampa and Grandma from the airport, but then Mom checked their flights, and they were early! So we all jumped in the truck and ran. We ended up beating them to pick up their bags with ten minutes to spare, but it was still quite a kerfuffle getting there!?

This was the view the whole time-and every time-we were in the car! My Grampa was a geography teacher so guiding us everywhere with his maps was easy as pie! One day,while we toured the Miami area we didn’t use a GPS just a Grampa! And we never got lost!!!???

On Wednesday we drove out to Cocoa Beach to show Grampa and Grandma where we had learned to surf! Except the weather had taken quite the turn, and it was CRAZY windy!!! It was also cold and the skies were gray. Although it did make for some pretty crazy pictures afterwards! Then we drove down the Florida A1A to Homestead where we were staying for a few nights! And it did brighten up a bit!?

Thursday’s agenda was the Florida Keys! This was just a quick stop at a monument that honored around 300 people who died in a horrific hurricane a long time ago. There was a family of 50 before the hurricane, and afterwards there were only 11 people left in the family that survived. It was a pretty heart saddening monument.

Feeding the Tarpons was definitely an experience! I was too chicken but then if you’d been there you would’ve been scared, too! The small tarpons are three feet long, and the big ones are probably around five feet long! Plus I was to busy trying to avoid the savage pelicans that were trying to steal the little fish out of our buckets. If you carried your bucket loosely beside you, they would stalk you along the pier, then stick their beaks into your bucket and try and get as many fish as they could in one gulp. They were really quite greedy, but well fed, birds!!!

Florida Key’s only natural beach- and it’s a few inches underwater. It was rather difficult to relax and get a suntan at that beach!??

So after eating lunch we packed up and moved on!

And found this gorgeous beach instead!!! The water was a beautiful temperature, and the water just gently lapped on the shore. It was great!!  But then we saw a stingray, so we hopped out of there pretty quickly…

But Mom wasn’t as scared as the rest of us, so we just hung off of her!??

This is a full grown Florida Keys Whitetail deer! It stands somewhere around three feet.

Kermit’s Key Lime Pie! It had never crossed my mind before but isn’t Key Lime Pie called Key Lime Pie because it originated in the Florida Keys?

In Key West the birds are protected. So if there’s a wild bird traveling through your restaurant there’s not much you can do about it… The birds are like, “Hahahahaha!?”

We saw Mile 0 of US Highway 1!

I think this picture says it all, but… We went to the Southernmost point of Continental U.S.A.!!! I felt so low…

Friday was the Florida Everglades! We went to Coopertown, which was a place where you could go on an airboat ride!!! Now you’ll never guess what we did on Friday… We went on an Airboat ride!!!? Coopertown gave a presentation on the Everglades and we got to hold a python and a one year old alligator!

An airboat… because if you’re like me I had no idea what an airboat was before coming to Florida!

One of many alligators we saw on the ride! We had an awesome tour guide!!! He knew how to drift the airboat over the water so that we were flying sideways over the water! It was very stressful, but also SO much fun!!!

Then at the end of the tour we got to hold another baby alligator!

Grandma even held one!!! That day was definitely one of firsts, for all of us!

The alligator hang out in the Everglades National Park. There were around 30 alligators suntanning all together!

And then we helped Grampa out with the walk back…?? There was a lookout in the National Park that we got out to look at. It was a short loop so we decided to just quick go and see then head back. It was going fine. Then we came out the other end of the loop where the mosquitos had all gathered to drop a surprise attack on any unsuspecting humans who just happened by. So Dad and I ran, jumped in the van, drove up to the entrance, got everyone in the car as fast as we could, and drove away. We were swatting mosquitos out of the van for about five minutes after. We all decided not to get out of the car in the park after that!?

But supper made up for it all! We went to Momma Mia’s Pizzeria, it was SOOOOOOOOO good!????? We got their Garlic Knotts as an appetizer…????? If you don’t like super strong garlic don’t get these, but if you do, you definitely have to get these!!! We brushed our teeth twice and the next morning our breath still smelled a bit like garlic…?

The pizzas were ginormous!!! Although I do think that’s the size we ordered…? And they were delicious!????? We even had enough left over for lunch the next day!

On Saturday we left our truck and camper in a campsite and drove the rental van up to Tampa. On the way we took the Everglades Loop Road, which if you like birds, nature, or alligators, and you’re not in a rush- it’s perfect for you!!! Because you absolutely HAVE to stop and take lots of pictures, as it’s a pretty picturesque road! This pile of alligators were having a cuddle as fish jumped in the pond in front of them. Once alligators have eaten, and are full, they might not eat for another two weeks, and just lie in the same spot for days on end.

We also stopped to pick oranges at an organic u-pick place! We picked a fresh bucket of oranges for $14.00!!! It was actually pretty weird because the oranges weren’t very orange. The ones in the store are dyed to look the gorgeous orange colour, so these ones were green, yellow, and a light orangish colour.

What can I say? Someone has got to have the muscles to get those oranges that are way up there…??

We also stopped at Venice Beach! AKA Shark Tooth Beach!!! For some strange reason all the teeth sharks lose wash up on this beach. Maybe their teeth only fall out in a certain spot in the ocean which has a current directly back to this beach. I couldn’t find any shark teeth for the life of me, so Cassia helped me out a bit… She planted one, then called me over and told me to look in a very specific area, and what do you know… I found one!!!??

Looking over our goodies!!! We found two fully intact ones and a few fragments!

So I said that on Saturday we drove to Tampa for the Breaking of Bread on Sunday morning. And then the Dryboroughs took us all out for lunch, which was very nice of them! After lunch we drove back to Homestead and picked up the trailer to take it to Hollywood KOA. There were cabins at that campground so Grampa and Grandma were able to stay close by!

Squeezing the oranges we picked for orange juice!!! Mmmmmnnnnnmmmmmnnnnnn!?????

On Monday morning Mom and Dad had to record two podcasts so Grampa and Grandma took us to the pool! It was lovely!

Then Dad worked preparing messages and stuff for Nicaragua while the rest of us toured Miami. This is Ocean Drive. It’s the road that’s in all the movies that have the stars driving along the road with the palm trees swaying and the gorgeous beach. So as Lanaya says, “Now we’re famous!”

It was a big day for the Fairfield grandkids when we finally got Grampa to use one of the electric wheelchairs that they have in Walmart!!! Honestly I think Cassia and Lanaya just wanted his walker because they were running and then drifting around the corners on it…???

We stopped at a gorgeous beach for lunch which had very nice waves for jumping and body surfing! And that night we did laundry at Grampa and Grandma’s cabin because they had a free washer and dryer in their cabin.?

And bright and early Tuesday morning, 2:30am to be exact, we dropped Grampa and Grandma off at the airport. But not after making them ride the moving walkway…?

We had an amazing time with you Grampa and Grandma!!! Even if  we all finished the week exhausted, it was wonderful to see you guys again!