Florida 2010

Boring title, I know. But this year’s trip to visit Mom in Florida was certainly eventful and the chilling temperatures were offset by the warmth of visits with family. Jeff chose to spend the week in Massachusetts with his Dad’s family, so Jann and I headed off alone. We stopped in Abingdon, VA to visit Andy, picked up a surprise package for Mom, and traveled through the Smokies on our way South.
Andy moved to Abingdon in January where he is the master electrician at the Barter Theatre.
Arriving Sunday night, we delivered the surprise package, Bonnie and Tristin, to Mom’s great delight. Her reaction was worth all of our secretive actions, though we were worried for a moment when she had to take a chair to recover from the shock.
Mom enjoyed the surprise and wanted to share the excitement, so we hurried over to sister Pat’s to reenact the surprise arrival. After the initial screams of delight, we had a great visit at Pat and Butch’s new home, just around the corner from Mom’s.
On Monday, another highlight of the trip was experienced as we met Adam, Rachel, and granddaughter Elena on the West coast of FL at the Homosassa Springs Wildlife Park.

This was Mom’s first opportunity to meet her 10th great grandchild.

It was also great to have Grandma Michelle and her parents Bob and Sherl Stephan there and we enjoyed some catch-up visiting with them through the day.

The wildlife park hosted some beautiful sights of Florida wildlife including manitees,

alligators,

egrets,

flamingos,

Oh, My!

Elena was quite curious about this huge alligator.

And evidently not afraid.

Not even afraid of this old crocodile, much to my delight.

Jann and I were delighted to hear Elena saying some of her first words, like “Hi, bear” to the black bear. And “G-pa” upon a gentle coax from… G-pa. At dinner that night, we were tickled to watch her hold hands during grace and bow her head, forehead to tabletop (we peaked). Maybe she was being especially earnest in fear of the gator bites I had just ordered to share with everyone (tasted like chicken?). Then she kept looking at me, touching her elbow and rubbing her chest. Jann had to explain to me she was signing, “cracker please”. How cute.

The remainder of our visit included a trip to the DeLeon Springs where purportedly Ponce discovered the Fountain of Youth. There we also had a make-your-own pancake meal at the old sugar mill.

And a visit to Daytona Beach. Way to cold, but we had fun as usual. Thanks Mom for letting us stay, crowd your home, and eat all your baked goods.

Thanks Bonnie and Tristin for going with us. We had a blast.