1st Ever Lindskoog Family Vacation!

Tim, Jazmine, and I had quite an adventure a couple of weeks ago. Tim's sister in Nashville bought my motorcycle so we decided to deliver it to her and then head on down to Florida for a little impromptu vacation. We decided not to plan anything on the vacation and just play it by ear. So Tim came back to Minnesota on Easter weekend and went back to St. Louis with his truck and the bike in the back of the truck. Jazmine and I flew down to St. Louis on Thursday the following week. On Saturday, Tim, Jazmine, and I drove to Nashville. We stayed the night with Alecia. It was great to see her and her new home in Nashville. It's only a five hour drive from St. Louis to Nashville so that part was easy. On Sunday morning, Tim, Jazmine and I headed down to Florida. That's about a ten hour drive (normally) but with Jazmine, it took a little longer. We ended up getting into Kissimmee, Florida, at about 11:00 pm on Sunday night. We found a cheap motel and crashed there for the night.

On Monday morning, we checked out of the motel and headed over to St. Cloud, Florida, which is where Tim grew up. Tim hasn't been back to Florida in more than 14 years so he was amazed at how much things changed. We stopped by "Sip-N'-Dip", which is a donut and coffee joint, to have a donut. Tim said that the shop didn't change one bit. In fact, they still had the same paint on the windows. All I know is that the donuts were awesome! After that, we went to Tim's old neighborhood. He was surprised at how much their old house and yard changed. There are a lot more houses in the area now. We cruised around the neighborhood and came across Tim's second cousin’s house. He was outside working in the yard so we stopped and talked with him for awhile. We also went to Tim's Great Aunt Lulu's house, who lived next door (she’s 90 years old). It was nice to see her and it was fun for her to meet Jazmine. After that, we went to Tim's cousin's house, who is also in the neighborhood, to visit. Tim grew up with him so it was great that they could catch up and it was fun for me to finally meet him.

Toward the end of the day, we wound up visiting Tim's former next door neighbor, Dean. Dean's wife was out of town but we spent a couple of hours there catching up. What a super guy! I also got to pick blood oranges and kumquats from Dean's trees! Talk about the ultimate Florida experience!! We ended the day by driving around a little more and then stopping for pizza at a shop that Tim used to frequent. It was a great day!!

On Day 2, we decided to hit the beach. We cruised over to Melbourne Beach first, which is on the East coast of Florida. Then we drove up to Cocoa Beach. We went into the famous Ron John Surf Shop at Cocoa Beach. It was huge!! Unfortunately, Jazmine started teething as soon as we got to Florida so she didn't want to spend too much time at any one place. But Tim sat in the truck with Jaz while she napped so I could play in the waves. The ocean is so beautiful! I loved standing in the water waiting for the waves to crash on my legs. But I saw this bluish-red puffed up thing in the water and I thought it might be a jellyfish so that made me nervous. We later found out that the jellyfish were out in full force that day and they advised everyone to stay out of the water. So much for that warning. After I played for an hour, we headed up the coast a little longer and then headed back toward Kissimmee. We had dinner and then went back to the motel that we had been staying at each night.

On Day 3, guess what we did?? DisneyWorld!! That's right...we went to the Magic Kingdom. We parked at a hotel and took the Monorail to the entrance. It was pretty crowded so we just hit the major rides: Pirates of the Carribean, the Haunted House, Snow White’s Scary Ride, the Jungle Ride, and a mellow ride in Tomorrow Land. We walked around the whole park and Tim made sure to re-create my fond childhood memories of DisneyLand (I was 9 years old the last time I went to DisneyLand). We ate a Churro and had some tasty pineapple ice cream outside of the Jungle Ride. Even though Tim doesn't like DisneyWorld at all (he used to work there), he was a great sport and even narrated some behind the scenes stuff for me. After spending all day there and not eating much, we were starved. We went to a place that Tim said had the best Calzone's anywhere. He was right. They were great! But, when we got back to the motel, I got sick. I think it was combination of the hot sun and not enough liquid. What a lightweight!

On Day 4, we decided to head over to the other side of Florida toward Tampa Bay and Clearwater Beach. When we were crossing over Tampa Bay, I saw a dolphin jump in the water. That was so cool! We drove around Clearwater Beach and hopped out for a few minutes. Then we drove North towards Port Richey. We grabbed a Diet Coke in Port Richey at a little outside restaurant on the beach. Then we decided to head back down the coast. We made it to Madeira Beach and sat in the sand for awhile. The sun was going down so rather than going back to Kissimmee and then having to go home from there, we started driving North until we got tired. We ended up in Gainesville and spent the night there.

The next morning, we got up early and drove to St. Louis. Along the way, we stopped at Summit Performance Racing parts outside of Atlanta. The store was huge! It was bigger than a Wal-Mart. Tim was in heaven. I got a free baseball cap out of the deal so that was cool. We made it to St. Louis around 2:00 am on Saturday morning. We slept for a few hours at our friend's house (Todd and Karen, who Tim was staying with down there). Then we went to breakfast with Karen and then headed for home in Minnesota. We made it back home at about 9:30 pm on Saturday night.

The weather in Florida was gorgeous! It was between 80 and 85 degrees and sunny every day! It was hard to come home to the snow. Overall, we put about 3,800 miles on for the whole trip. It was so wonderful for us to spend so much time together after being apart for almost 3 months. Tim and Jazmine really reconnected with each other. Jazmine was such a champ for the whole trip. She just hung out in the backseat of the truck in her car seat and napped a lot. It was not stressful for us because we didn't have any strict plan that we needed to stick to. It was really neat for me to be able to experience such a large part of Tim's past. Overall, it was a very memorable, fun, and exciting family vacation!

Below are some pictures that we took along the way.