Vacation, All I Ever Wanted...

Sharkey and I recently returned from 10 days of "vacation-y" bliss. We did the old fashioned drive and see the country trip. We got in the car, I put on my iTunes Playlist entitled "70's Leaning on the Backseat" and we were off to the south serenaded by some retro driving music:



We made stops in Reston (Virginia), Raleigh (North Carolina), Hilton Head Island (South Carolina), Savannah (Georgia), and St. Augustine (Florida) before reaching our final destination, Clearwater (Florida).

Here are some photo snippets of some of the things we did and saw:

Hilton Head:

This is the first Original Pancake House I have seen since I lived in Bend, Oregon. They have super yummy food. So we went there for breakfast. If you never tried one and have one nearby, go for it. I highly recommend it.



St. Augustine:



Clearwater:

Our main destination was to see the Phillies play a preseason game in Clearwater. We watched them trounce the Houston Astros 13-3. It was awesome!







We had breakfast at the same place the Phillies get their food from the next morning, Lenny's:



Orlando:

For her birthday, Sharkey wanted to indoor skydive. I am typically up for anything, but I had to overcome a bit to get myself to do it. Especially after seeing the warning sign on the 2nd floor:



Riiight.... I have dislocated my right shoulder 3x and had a titanium/stainless steel screw inserted into it to keep it from going out. So this sign really did apply to me. But I felt like I'd regret it if I didn't try, and hey getting injured while indoor sky diving is "manly" high testosterone acceptable, so I did it. It was a blast...




Afterward we went to Downtown Disney for a lovely dinner at McDonald's and had one of these babies for dessert at Girardelli's Ice Cream Shoppe:




We went to Disney Hollywood studios the 2nd day we were in Orlando. We went there 45 minutes before the park opened so we could be the first in line for the new ride, Toy Story: Midway Mania.





We were able to ride it 3x for the day. It was great!!



Hollywood Studios was very relaxing and we had an afternoon cupcake / rice krispy treat break, which produced this euphoric look on my wife's face:



We both shared sort of the same look. And while we did a lot of driving and had a lot of stops, it was a great trip!