Today we decided to take the kids to the pancake house and the natural springs. They wanted to go to the pool again but the girls each had pool blisters in the bottoms of the toes from playing in the pool so many hours (again, something that I had forgotten about from my Florida youth).
First we ate pancakes at a restaurant where you cook your own pancakes at the table. I worked at a place similar to this in Colorado but there the patrons cooked their own steaks. This was much simpler…except for the five kids at the table with two hot griddles. The kids did pretty well and Robin even learned to make his own pancakes.
After breakfast/lunch (it was after 11:00 because we were not in any hurry to get anywhere), we decided to try swimming in the chilly fresh water springs. I have to mention that the park was called “Ponce De Leon Springs”. Any good Floridian knows that he was an explorer looking for the Fountain of Youth. I felt a bit of my childhood coming back after hearing the name of the place that we were playing….maybe I wasn’t such a tourist after all. The water was very chilly and the kids played in it only a little while before heading over to the playground where it was warm.
As usual, a thunderstorm rolled up quickly and drove us back into the car and back to the Ranch. The kids watched tv while the adults talked and napped. Before dinner the kids wanted to swim again. Sidney and I did cannon balls in the pool with the kids and taught them “bumper butts” (another childhood favorite). And as it happened each day, Tom (aka G-daddy) brought the kids ice cream by the pool.
We had a great tIme in Florida. Sidney and I became quite a team over the week. We tend to get along all of the time and don’t take anything that happens too seriously. We can laugh at mishaps, roll our eyes at the kids whining, and then relax each night while drinking wine and chatting with her parents. It was a very successful trip that I think we may even brave again next year.