My mom and dad were supposed to fly to Florida to visit my grandparents, who lived in Stuart, Fla, on the Atlantic coast side of the state. They had their plane tickets and everything ready, when they were involved in an accident that totaled their car at 8th and Union Blvd. The crash left my dad in the hospital for a few days and they were both pretty sore...and, they were out of a car.
My grandfather generously offered to give them his '72 Mustang - and my parents, very generously, gave us their plane tickets so we could fly down and drive the car back! So we did. My grandfather picked us up at the Orlando airport and we went to his house in Stuart to stay for a couple of days. He lived on the golf course in a beautiful little bungalow and regaled us with stories about crocodiles living in the water traps and eating the neighbors poodle. We swam in the neighbor's pool, but saw no signs of crocodiles. Plenty of anoles, cute little lizards, running around though and lots of large, exotic bugs. We also watched our share of the Lawrence Welk Show! We were able to get to the beach each day we were there and saw some enormous sea turtles that had come up on the beach to lay their eggs - that was incredible.
Then, we headed to Disney. My grandfather tipped us off that residents got a great deal on park tickets, so we used the Mustang's registration to get past the ticket police. We had a blast going through that park! It is so much larger than Disneyland and we were exhausted at the end of the day...I love the Pirates of the Carribean and Kim's favorite has always been It's a Small World, which I can manage a quick nap in any time I need one! We went to River Country the next day and spent the day going down the waterslides, working on our tans and swimming. The final day, we went to Epcot Center and had a lot of fun checking out the exhibits and visiting the different 'countries' that they have set up there. Unfortunately, this was well before the expansion that saw new parks like the Wild Animal Kingdom, etc., but we still thoroughly enjoyed our time there. My parents set us up at a hotel in Kissimmee, just a couple of miles away from the park. We had fun visiting the various restaraunt and night spots in the area.
We headed back to the coast side and visited Daytona beach, which was really nice and had huge beaches - as we made our way back up the coast, we would occaissonally stop to enjoy some beach time and did this all up Florida, Georgia and the Carolina's before 95 cuts a little too west to make it convenient. During this trip, we discovered the Waffle House and were instantly hooked! Back then, there were no Waffle Houses north of the Mason-Dixon line, so we had no idea. We stopped at as many of them as possible, finding that we loved grits, liked our hash browns covered and smothered and really enjoyed their scrambled eggs with cheese and raison toast (something that Kim ate frequently during her finally days and begged me to make her that final night at 3:30 a.m. in our home). We thought is was so funny to walk into one and hear all of the help, with their southern accents, yell 'welcome to Waffle House!'. Once we moved here, we would make it to a waffle house every now and again and always enjoyed it.
Well, the bambini's had another good day...stayed a little late at school, after I forgot to pick them up. I thought it seemed too quiet around the house...just kidding, ran a little late, for good reasons and scooped them up. I finally met a man named Pete Inks, too. Kim used to tell me a lot about a man named Pete that did so much for our school district and was so nice. She worked with him on projects like Vail Pride Day and school fund raisers. I never had the chance to meet him and today, while talking to Patti at Cottonwood, a man walked in and said he was here for a 2:30 meeting - I quickly quipped that he had probably missed it, since it was 2:35 (and, as I said, I had never met him!) - he said it was with the principal, Ms. Bryson and Patti told him she would be back around 3. He said he probably had his time wrong and if she came back to tell her Pete Inks had stopped by. I introduced myself and Pete could not say enough great things about Kim's exuberance, dedication, attention to detail and compassion - yep, he sure knew Kimmy! It was good to finally meet him.
When I got the kids home, Lexy came over and her and Aut did their homework, followed by getting pulled around the park by Bella - I'm not sure who wore who out. Cody went to our neighbor, Alex's house and I made the kids chicken tacos and salsa. They sure enjoy their time together. Gotta love the matching fedoras too! Autumn just came to check out what I was doing and said 'well, that's not my best picture that you posted!'...she's a piece of work!
Anyway, Kim and I were able to see the coast of Florida from Miami to Jacksonville - some beautiful beaches and some great times along that state's coast!!
Love,
Dave
Mark 9:23
"If you can" said Jesus. "Everything is possible for him who believes."
It was so strange reading this because I just got back from Stuart FL on 1-22-11. I never even heard of Stuart. Tim was working on Hutchinson Island. I had lunch at Duffy's Sports bar. The people were really nice and friendly. The weather was in the 80s and we went swimming in the Ocean it was 72 degrees, I think the people who live in FL don't like to swim in the water when it is that cold we were like the only ones swimming and there were a lot of people on the beach. I came back with a bunch of shells, after making Kim's bracelet I thought I would make more like them and donate the funds to her foundation.
ReplyDeleteThe more I read about your family and relationship with Kim, really makes me reflect on my own relationship with my husband and children. I cherish each day with them more and more.