So there we were...

"My pee tastes funny today"
That pretty much sums up the awesomeness of our trip to Florida. Now get ready for a long boring account of what we did.
We left Thursday morning. We wanted to avoid having a stressful trip down, so we made sure we took our time. We decided to go slightly out of the way and visit the Smoky Mountain Knifeworks in Sevierville, Tennessee. I got a new pocket knife. Anna got a dulcimer (it was her birthday present from me). According to the accompanying information sheet, Anna's dulcimer was hand made by Dolly Parton's sister-in-law.
We spent the night in a motel in Georgia.
Friday, we arrived in Bradenton sometime around five in the afternoon. Jon and Sara were there to meet us (Jon arrived on Wednesday I believe and spent Thursday and Friday exploring Bradenton on Sara's brand new girly bike). Kevin was still working. Sara gave us a tour of the house. They have a nice house. Most of the floors are hardwood. We got to meet Mia. Anna and Jon were fascinated by the orange tree in Sara's backyard. The oranges looked really ugly post-freeze. Anna and Jon decided to sample them anyway. They didn't taste too bad. When Kevin got home, we had a dinner of pulled pork. Kevin introduced us to some of his favorite hot sauces. He had one called Pain Is Good: Garlic Style Hot Sauce. It had quite the kick. We all tried it. We all felt the burn. We played The Game of Things that night. We laughed ourselves silly. We came up with some good catch phrases. It was a good day.
On Saturday morning, Sara was invited to a special get together. So while she ate fancy breakfast and got a pedicure, Jon, Anna, and I went exploring. Jon took us to one of the places he discovered before we arrived: the DeSoto Memorial. It was this little park type place on the edge of the Manatee River. It was one of those places designed to make white people feel bad about what European explorers did hundreds of years ago to the Native Americans. There were plaques with quotes about the horrendous Christians and life size cut-outs of the same three actors, dressed as indians, being pulled around by chains. We pretty much ignored all the educational stuff and instead focused on exploring the edge of the river. There were dead fish everywhere. We found a giant avocado and argued about whether or not it was actually an avocado.
Saturday afternoon, Sara took us to the beach. Anna and Sara got attacked by squirrels. We walked around the beach. We found some pretty shells. Sara told us about all the drive by shootings that happen on the beach. Saturday evening was alumni night at our hosts' high school. We decided that before we went to the game we would introduce Jon to the wonders of Chipotle. After we were through, he agreed with Kevin and I that Chipotle has more flavor than Qdoba. There was an alumni boys basketball game before the boys game. We were all disappointed that there wasn't an alumni girls game because we wanted to see Sara play. Sara's team ended up winning their game, and I was surprised when after the game Anna said that it was the most exciting high school game she'd seen. As soon as we got back to Sara's house, we started watching the Colts/Ravens game. Because we knew the game would start before we got back, Kevin Tivoed the game, so we started from the beginning and by the fourth quarter, we were able to catch up to live action and finished the game live.
On Sunday afternoon, we all went to Robinson's nature preserve. It was here that we determined that Jon was now Ranger Jon, seeing as he knew everything there was to know about birds and wildlife and salt marshes and life. The preserve was pretty sweet all around. There were probably three miles of trails that we walked, plus a really cool observation tower. We especially enjoyed seeing a bald eagle. There were vultures everywhere, picking at all the dead fish that still littered all the shoreline. After the preserve, we stopped by Kevin's parents' house to pick up some dinner. After that, we went to Publix to get supplies so that I could make a cheesecake. Apparently, Floridians like their Publix. It was fine. It has a cool name, I guess. We watched the Chargers/Jets game and then I made the cheesecake.
Kevin had to work Monday, but Sara had the day off. We really wanted to see manatees so after some internet searching, we discovered that the Tampa Electric company had an observation platform that was supposed to be good. We drove up there, and sure enough, there were at least 150 manatees enjoying the warm water runoff from the power-plant. There was also a canal walk that took us away from the manatees but also happened to take us toward a section of water full of rays and sharks that enjoyed jumping out of the water. Anna and Jon got some pictures of sharks jumping, and we some some big rays jumping, though we didn't get any pictures of them. It was actually a surprisingly cool place to visit. On the way back, Sara and Jon got ghetto rocking out to "Gangsta's Paradise." Sara took us to this place called Starfish Co. for lunch. It was just this little dockside restaurant attached to a fish market, covered in signs asking customers what the hurry was and urging them to be patient. We waited patiently for our food. It was good. Jon had mullet because according to the menu it's the fish that "put Cortez on the map." Anna had crab cakes. I had clam strips. Sara had a grouper sandwich. I think we all enjoyed our food. We then went to a local music store so Anna could find some good sheet music. I helped Kevin and Sara make white chili for dinner. We ate cheesecake for dessert. We played The Game of Things again. We laughed more. We came up with more catch phrases. I think we all had a good time.
Jon's flight left Tuesday afternoon, and Sara had to work Tuesday morning. Anna and I asked Jon what he wanted to do. We all agreed we wanted to go back to the preserve, and we wouldn't mind going to the beach. We went to the beach early so that Anna could try to find a sand dollar. All told, we found eight sand dollars and some cool shells. Then we went to the preserve, but we didn't see any eagles that time. We did spend quite a bit of time watching fish swim through the waters of the preserve. It was a nice relaxing visit. When we got back to Sara's house, we just waited for her to come home while Jon did some laundry. When Sara came back, we all piled in the car and drove Jon to the airport. It was kind of sad.
Tuesday night, Anna and I offered to take Kevin and Sara out to dinner as a thanks for letting us come visit. They suggested a place called Firehouse Subs. I guess it's a chain, though I had never heard of it (and a quick look tells me there is only one in the state of Indiana). They had really good subs and a whole array of hot sauces to try. We had fun tasting the different sauces with our subs and deciding which were our favorites. We all agreed that one particular sauce called Gator Hammock was amazing. After dinner, I started doing some laundry at their house. When I went into the garage (the location of their washer and dryer) to check on the laundry, I discovered to my horror that a can of paint that had been on top of the washer was now spilled across the floor. I think I terrified Kevin when I came inside and said that I had made a mess with some paint in their garage. I assured them that I didn't think I had directly knocked over the paint, but I thought it was caused by the vibrations of the washer. Fortunately, Kevin kept his cool, and we went out to examine the damage. As it turns out, there wasn't much. Kevin apparently picture paint splattered across the hood of his car. In reality, the paint just landed on a plastic mat in front of the washer, and the spill was confined to that small area. We just moved the mat out of the way so that the paint could dry and called it good. The thought of all of that still kind of horrifies me though.
On Wednesday morning, we said goodbye to Sara and Kevin, who both had to work, and we started packing up. We then went to the beach one last time so that Anna could get a little bit of sand to bring back home. On our way out of town, we stopped at Sara's bank and sent her a map, through the depository vacuum shoot, directing her to where to find their house key (which we had used to lock up when we left). In return, she supplied us with "Safe-T Pops" (you know, the classic lolly-pops from the bank with the loops instead of the sticks). We then drove all day. We stayed at a hotel in Tennessee that night.
On Thursday, we got up and drove to the Bass Pro Shops in Sevierville. We looked around awhile. We relaxed a bit. We drove through rain most of the way after that. We got back home that night. We picked up Daisy. We slept. We avoided unpacking.
I guess these words really don't capture the trip, but Anna and I both agree that it was one of the best trips ever. So, this is a shout out to you, Sara: Thanks for an awesome time. And this is is a shout out to you, Jon: Thanks for reaffirming my belief that if I were to ever be on Cash Cab, I'd want you in there with me.