Monday, July 27, 2009

Back to the Grind

Trip report ahead but first some brief housekeeping.

Today life returns to normalcy. Two weeks ago my family enjoyed a Florida vacation which was followed by me spending a week of job training in Cedar Rapids. I return to my late week shift of 1-10pm with the exception of Wednesday which I will start early due to an AM meeting. The plan is to get over to the YMCA this morning and get on the elliptical. I have had a couple good days with my foot but I am seriously thinking about scheduling a visit with my doctor. I have so far to go between today and January. Most likely once I am running again I will just stick to training and skip the Des Moines half in October. More on all this as things develop. Lets get to the post trip report.

We traveled to Florida on the 10th for a full week in the fun and sun. For this trip we flew on Allegiant Air Allegiant does not fly into MCO. It flies into Orlando/Sanford or St Peter/Clearwater on alternating days. We booked this airline because it was so much cheaper than the big carriers. How much cheaper? Well carriers such as Northwest and Delta wanted $400 pp round trip for just the flight. We booked Allegiant for $247 pp(tax included) round trip and that included a full size rental car and the baggage fees.


Our flight down left on time and went well. We landed shortly after 10pm and walked over to Alamo to pick up our car. We still had about an hours drive down to Cocoa Beach. Upon check in we were given a free room upgrade. We think this was because the other building were filled with softball teams that were in town for a tournament. The upgrade provided us a full kitchen and our building was the one that the free breakfast was served at.


Our building set back from the beach but it was only a short walk to the beach. (Much shorter than it appears in this picture.) A shuttle launched was scheduled for Saturday. We had hoped to watch it from the beach. Unfortunately it did not actually lift off until Wednesday.

We spent most of Saturday morning swimming in the ocean. Mid day we drove uptown and stopped at a Subway for lunch. Next we drove up north past Port Canaveral to see the ships moored there. Behind the Carnival ship was one of the Disney ships. I was surprised at the size of these boats. We began discussing the fact that we need to do a cruise sometime.


On the way back we came across Manatee Park. Although we could not get any good photos, we did see at least three manatees. They came within forty feet of the shore. All you could see was their heads lifting up now and then.


During spring break you often hear about Daytona Beach and Ft. Lauderdale. Evidently the party scene must gather in Cocoa Beach too. There were adult clubs all over the place. They were well maintained buildings but the shear number of them did not exactly say family friendly community. This sign, located next door to a souvenir shop is thanking Lisa for five years of service. Thanks Lisa.


On Sunday morning my daughter and I woke up to watch the sun rise. The beach had a number of these little fellas popping up here and there.


The sunrise was beautiful. There were about a dozen other folks down on the beach watching it. Ah the life of a tourist.


After breakfast we hit the road for Orlando and Saratoga Springs.

To be cont...

4 comments:

Rae! said...

Love the pics!!! Glad your back. How's the foot??

Amanda said...

Great pictures and sounds like you had a good time at the beach...I could use a do nothing sort of vacation right now...The beach could fit that bill nicely.

Keep us posted on your training and how you're feeling.

Chris said...

sounds like a great trip!

Cruise? Definitely! The wife and I were going on two a year prior to having kids....once they get a little older we'll be hitting the decks of the Disney ships I'm pretty certain. :-)

Matt said...

Look at you being a good Disney Citizen and posting a trip report, unlike other nameless, bad team voicers......

Sounds like a good trip. Hope your foot is alright.