April in Florida

Most years we leave Florida and head north very early in April. This year we stayed through the month of April and left in early May. It has been awhile since we stayed this late but we wanted to make up for not being here in January and February.

April brought very nice weather although it did get quite warm the last week. That was ok with us and was easier to tolerate than the cold we had to deal with back home.

The best part was that Katie and Rosie came for a visit mid April. We had a fantastic week with them in Crystal River. Katie wanted to visit that area and Rosie was very excited to see the mermaids at Weeki Wachee.

the mermaid show

rosie loved meeting a mermaid after the show

We rented a house with them in Crystal River that was close to every thing that we wanted to see and do. The best part was it had a pool which we used every afternoon. We spent a morning at Fort Island Beach, another at Weeki Wachee, and another with a guide kayaking in a nearby river.

on our way to crystal river, we stopped by to visit aunt tish. she enjoyed meeting rosie.

rosie and tim’s favorite part of vacation - swimming every afternoon.

rosie did a great job kayaking

i was lazy; our guide did most of the paddling for us so i could just enjoy the ride.

we saw a few springs on the trip and the guide said you could swim between some of them. i would be nervous diving down a hole and trying to swim to the next one to come up.

The day we went to Weeki Wachee, we stopped for lunch afterwards at the Monkey Bar in Homossasa where we sat outside and watched the monkeys on Monkey Island while we ate lunch. On another day we had lunch at The Freezer for their wonderful steamed shrimp.

our view of monkey island.

there were 3 monkeys living on monkey island.

Katie had messed up a little with their plans but it worked out well both for their arrival and departure. She thought she booked flights in and out of Orlando but instead it was the Sanford airport. Tim had never been there so we went over on Saturday and spent the day there and booked a hotel for that night so we could easily pick them up in the morning. Sue and Greg met us in Sanford for the day. We enjoyed lunch at the German restaurant then spent the afternoon walking around town. We stopped into the old jail that is now a restaurant/ bar and had a drink and played Euchre for a little while before we headed to our hotel. Sue and Greg joined us again Sunday morning for breakfast at our hotel after I picked up Katie and Rosie.

enjoying a drink in the jail

these doors were on each of the dining rooms. we got locked in jail!

visiting epcot

All in all it was a great vacation and wonderful time enjoying some Florida towns. I even got a bonus day. I learned my sister and niece were at Disney the same week Katie and Rosie were here. After I dropped Katie and Rosie at the Sanford airport, I headed over to Disney and joined Brenda and Jess for a day at Epcot. It was a long day so I spent the night with them and headed home the next day. A bonus- it was their international garden festival. The gardens with Disney characters made out of plants were beautiful.

the gardens were so beautiful and impressive.

That was quite a week. We enjoyed our last few weeks in Florida and spent a bit of time organizing the shed and fifth wheel so we could close it up for the summer. After a busy couple of weeks, we hit the road.

We are actually on the road again traveling to some places we haven’t been before. Look for upcoming posts about our adventures.