Emily and I have been trying to take a vacation for most of the summer, but time constraints, and not wanting to drop $2,000 on a vacation, held us back most of the summer. I knew that Emily desperately wanted some quality beach time before she had to go back to school, and I really wanted to make sure she got that beach time. (Laying out at the pool for ½ of the summer really wears you out. Ha).
Our Neighbor’s business partner has a condo on the beach in Clearwater, FL that was cheap, so we called our good friends Bear and Amy and decided we were going to go. We decided to save some money and just drive down. It was only a 15-16 hour drive with cool towns on the way. The plan: Leave Sunday around 12:00 and drive straight through and get to the condo around 3:00 am and get some good sleep, wake up around 9:30-10:00 and have a long, lazy day at the beach. Leave Wed night and stay in Atlanta (½ way point) and spend Thursday in Atlanta and then drive home to St. Louis that night, arrive around midnight and then prepare for the 14 people staying at our house that week. Sounded perfect: right?
We find out that the owner was going to be there until Monday around 8:15, so we decided to head out anyway and just take our time on the drive; hell, that’s the point of a road trip.
3 ½ hours in we see a sign that says Super Man statue 1 mile, and naturally we were intrigued. If they were going to spend money on a highway sign, it must be cool right? We end up driving 3 miles off the highway and end up in Metropolis, IL: the home of Superman. The story is that the town was named way before Superman, but the comic book was not based on this town, they named Superman’s home Metropolis because they didn’t think anyone would name a town that, but low and beyond, never put anything passed Illinois! It was a cool stop, not worth driving 3 ½ hours for, but if you ever catch yourself driving past it, swing on by: it is a huge Super Man statue.
After that it was off to Nashville, TN. Nashville is definitely a town that I would love to spend a few days in. Downtown Nashville reminded me of a more country Beale Street. Lots of bars and restaurants, but instead of hearing blues blaring, you hear country music and karaoke, but oddly it was real cool.
Ate at Big River Brewery: good food and great beer.
This was the guy cleaning the windows in the background of the picture of Emily and I. He did this for a few minutes: Funny, in a creepy sort of way.
This was the point that I had my 6 hours of driving in and it was the girls turn to drive and let Bear and I try to sleep for a few hours.
So, instead of arriving at 3:00 am, we take our time, make lots of bathroom stops and end up in Clear Water at 10:00, with no time for bed, so we hit the beach with hopes of being very lazy. The greatest thing about this condo it was on a very quiet beach, so no tourist and Bear and I could get a great game of Beach Pong.
Emily in full swing during Beach Pong
We spend Monday night around our Condo and had the beach blackened salmon I think I have ever had. I love seafood, but Emily does not, so as you can imagine, I don’t eat much seafood. For 2 ½ days, I got my seafood for the year in. It was wonderful! Almost worth the 16 hours in the car.
Wednesday Bear and I booked Deep Sea Fishing: Finally!! Bear and I both have attempted to Deep Sea Fish 2 other times and both times it was canceled due to weather, so we were pumped about heading out. The girls booked an excursion to an island to collect shells and sand dollars.
Bear and I on the way out to sea.
Of course 5 minutes into the trip it starts to rain. Not a heavy rain, but a cold, slow drizzly that lasted for the entire 4 hour boat ride. The only dry place was inside the cabin, which had the A/C blasting, so mixed with our cold wet clothes, wasn’t the best place to be. But, despite our shivering through 4 hours, it was a ton of fun: highly recommended!
Bear caught the first fish
My first catch was a double!
Showing off our fish. As you can see in the background, it was getting sunny just as we arrived back to shore.
Emily and Amy on their excursion
Here are a few random beach shots
Atlanta is another very cool town that I could spend a week in. We went to the CNN Center
Which was very cool. We wanted to get the VIP tour of Robin Meade in the morning, but it was all booked up for weeks in advance. Emily and I watch her every morning, so we settled for a picture with the cardboard cutout in the gift shop
Olympic Park
Next we hit up the world of Coca Cola, which was amazing. We could have spent all day there, but time constraints only allowed 2 hours (we were told by numerous people that if you don’t leave Atlanta by 3:00, you get stuck in parking lot traffic)
They have a sample room that has 60 different Coca Cola brands from around the world, some were very good and a couple were just plain nasty. Bear and I made it our goal to try every flavor, it was tough, but we made it.
Atlanta made me realize how cool St. Louis is for having so much free stuff to do. We spend $80 in Atlanta in just 5 hours, and we only went to less than ¼ of the cool stuff
So, the trip was a success, Arnie made it with only one scare, we almost had to leave him in Atlanta and drive home with a new car, but he straightened up and turned off his check engine light. I think that Bear and I enjoyed the road trip a little more than the girls (they did watch 5 movies on trip). We arrived home around at 11:00 Thursday night, slept like a rock and woke up Friday to get ready for the weekend of 2 weddings and lots of house guest. 14 Friday and 20 Saturday and leaky toilet which leaked down to the ceiling in the living room. But, we have always said our house is always open for anyone who needs a place to stay, and we were more than happy to have everyone and ended up having a great time! It makes things a lot easier when all your friends clean up after their selves. Makes Emily happier, which means I am happy.
Alright, off to bed. Thanks for reading.
“May you live as long as you like and have all you like while you live!”
