Sunday, March 27, 2005
A rainy rainy day
Friday was supposed to be the big event, the thing that Alysa has been the most excited about - going to see the manatees. In a town 75 miles north of where we were, there is a rescue/rehabilitating place for manatees, as well as other animals native to Florida. They have an underwater observatory for the fish and manatees. So.....we set off for Homosassa Springs. We should have left a little earlier than we did, but I don't think it would have made much of a difference.
It took us 3 hours to get there. It took an hour and a half to go about 20 miles. The lights along the state highway were not timed at all, and we stopped at almost every single stoplight. You would think that they would give the 7 lane highway priority over the side streets, but apparantly not. It was awful. Another unnecessary traffic problem.
We finally get up there, and the nice sunshiney weather has turned a bit dark and dreary. It was sprinkling a bit. But it was warm out, and we've driven all this way, that we decide to buy tickets and go thru the outdoor park even tho it's sprinkling. In the couple minutes it took to buy our tickets, it had begun pouring. The ticket lady was nice enough to not charge us for Alysa since we were still going to go thru it.
It starts thundering and lightning, so we decide to sit in the car for a bit to see if the rain tapers off. But it doesn't. After a half hour, we decide to go for it anyway. I was a bit worried that the kids would cry about getting so wet. We get out, and start crossing the parking lot, and it is flooded. Brennen says 'this is nuts, the trail is going to be all muddy and flooded - we can't even cross the parking lot' and we decide to not go thru the park. It was just blowing sheets of rain. At least it was warm out. But it was crazy to go thru an outdoor walk in the middle of a thunderstorm. So we get in the car and start leaving, and Alysa is heartbroken and disappointed. She starts sobbing - those quiet, heartwrenching sobs. She is so upset about not seeing the manatees. So I tell Brennen to stop the car, and I look at a map of the walking tour. The manatees are at the very beginning of the trail. So we decide to go back and just go thru the manatee exhibit, and then leave.
When we start walking the trail, we are pleasantly surprised to see that it isn't a dirt path, but a nice, wide, paved path. And the rain had died down a little and the trees overhead were blocking some more of it. So the walk to the manatee exhibit wasn't that bad. The manatees were really cool - a lot bigger and wider than we had thought they were. After we saw them, we decided to go ahead and walk the rest of the mile trail. So we got to see a crocodile, alligators, flamingos....we saw them fight LOL. Alysa loved it. She didn't even stay under the umbrella with me....she was running and jumping in the puddles. And while we were out there, the rain picked up again. of course. LOL. It turns out it had been storming that hard up there all week, so we would have had to go thru that anyway. But we would have dressed more appropriately had we known. Oh well. It's things like that that make family vacations, family vacations LOL. I'm just bummed that it was raining too hard for me to take my camera with. So no pictures to show for that day.
It took us 3 hours to get there. It took an hour and a half to go about 20 miles. The lights along the state highway were not timed at all, and we stopped at almost every single stoplight. You would think that they would give the 7 lane highway priority over the side streets, but apparantly not. It was awful. Another unnecessary traffic problem.
We finally get up there, and the nice sunshiney weather has turned a bit dark and dreary. It was sprinkling a bit. But it was warm out, and we've driven all this way, that we decide to buy tickets and go thru the outdoor park even tho it's sprinkling. In the couple minutes it took to buy our tickets, it had begun pouring. The ticket lady was nice enough to not charge us for Alysa since we were still going to go thru it.
It starts thundering and lightning, so we decide to sit in the car for a bit to see if the rain tapers off. But it doesn't. After a half hour, we decide to go for it anyway. I was a bit worried that the kids would cry about getting so wet. We get out, and start crossing the parking lot, and it is flooded. Brennen says 'this is nuts, the trail is going to be all muddy and flooded - we can't even cross the parking lot' and we decide to not go thru the park. It was just blowing sheets of rain. At least it was warm out. But it was crazy to go thru an outdoor walk in the middle of a thunderstorm. So we get in the car and start leaving, and Alysa is heartbroken and disappointed. She starts sobbing - those quiet, heartwrenching sobs. She is so upset about not seeing the manatees. So I tell Brennen to stop the car, and I look at a map of the walking tour. The manatees are at the very beginning of the trail. So we decide to go back and just go thru the manatee exhibit, and then leave.
When we start walking the trail, we are pleasantly surprised to see that it isn't a dirt path, but a nice, wide, paved path. And the rain had died down a little and the trees overhead were blocking some more of it. So the walk to the manatee exhibit wasn't that bad. The manatees were really cool - a lot bigger and wider than we had thought they were. After we saw them, we decided to go ahead and walk the rest of the mile trail. So we got to see a crocodile, alligators, flamingos....we saw them fight LOL. Alysa loved it. She didn't even stay under the umbrella with me....she was running and jumping in the puddles. And while we were out there, the rain picked up again. of course. LOL. It turns out it had been storming that hard up there all week, so we would have had to go thru that anyway. But we would have dressed more appropriately had we known. Oh well. It's things like that that make family vacations, family vacations LOL. I'm just bummed that it was raining too hard for me to take my camera with. So no pictures to show for that day.
