Easter Vacation!

Tuesday: Our original plan for today was to check out late, then head home via Orlando so we could stop at Ikea.

We grabbed breakfast at Perkins (Tampa's, not Orlando's) then stopped at Target for last-minute stuff for the week so we wouldn't have to stop for groceries at home. As we got out of Kuroma, an elderly man stopped us. Seems an Altima was left running with nobody inside. I took down the plate so I could give it to Guest Services to announce. I also asked the trunk if anyone was locked inside. That car had the push-button start meaning if the key was taken far enough away (presumably in the driver's pocket) the car should cut off. Weird. We gave the message once inside and then Younger and I waited to see if anyone came up. Nope. By the time we had our stuff, maybe 20 minutes, the car was STILL there, running. Weirder...

We jumped on I-4 and had an uneventful drive into Orly. We stopped first at the Mall at Millenia and had a good time at Urban Outfitters looking at the weird stuff. I wound up picking up XI again (for the third time) when Elder wanted to get Yu-Gi-Oh Tag Force so I grabbed both together. Nobody wanted to go to Ikea so we left the mall, with plans to go to Sanford for a bookstore and Red Brick pizza. We barely got out of the lot when I saw a bunch of Lotus Elises at a high-end dealer. I had to make a u-ie and park at the neighboring Mercedes dealer and walk across the divider with the boys. I found a sales guy and asked him point blank if we could get in an Elise and take pics. He reluctantly agreed but we had a pleasant, if brief, chat about Lotus' racing heritage. The pics came out nice and I do so love those runabouts! An Elise is for you if you think an RX-8 is just too big.

Once we got to Sanford, I started the install at Books-A-Million thinking I needed net access, but I never could get on. Thankfully the install started anyway. While waiting, I browsed the manga but couldn't find what I was looking for. I continued it at RB and was able to get on, grabbing a current version of Altana View. Just as the battery died ^^.
On the way home, I powered up the black box and finished the install, as well as AV, but for some reason an awful lot of gear wouldn't show. However, AV also has maps! Yay!

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Monday: Today's big plan was a trip to the mall, "Clash of the Titans" and go-karting at Tampa GP.

We had about 90 minutes to kill at the mall so we had a nice lunch and then split up to shop. At GameStop, I was looking at the XI Ultimate Collection. I'm ready to move forward with my cosplaying plans and I need to get to work with a model viewer. However, I didn't care for the attitude one GS employee gave me about not wanting to buy a gut. Eventually, it was time for the movie. It wasn't bad, and there was a nice nod to the original (see if you can spot Bubo) but for some reason I just didn't get the same thrill that the others did. A later reflection I had was that it seemed to be more spectacle than story. Not sure if this is endemic to 3-D flicks or not...

As we were leaving, we called Tampa GP to get directions. As Ape was getting a Clinique gift set thing, I messed with the Skin Type Analyzer thingy. You answer 8 questions about your skin by moving the sliders. When you're done, you look for the one type (of 4) that came up the most and /that's/ your type. Wouldn't you know it - I had two of each and therefore *no* dominant type. -lolly sigh- Getting to the track would prove to be harder than it should have been as I misheard the first exit and they happened to have moved since our last outing. We wound up looping over the Seven-Mile bridge twice and made a number of "Marco, Polo" phone calls but we eventually found it.

They moved to an indoor facility, shortening the track. On the flip side, they hadn't jacked the rates due to the new (and very nicely appointed digs - go Schumi!) and the simpler track was pretty fast. The Clones and I were the only ones in our heat and I had fun lapping them. Both drive well but I suspect they simply lack the seat time and knowledge of racecraft. Nothing that wouldn't be hurt by more seat time! At one point, Elder and I were dicing on the way off the final hairpin to Start/Finish and he wound up T-boning me smartly, knocking me into my seat bolster hard enough to bruise. Neither of us lost control however and I thought it was an awesome bit oof driving on his part. I think he got flagged for it though!

On the way back, we stopped at Five Guys for dinner, which we planned to eat poolside. Something wonderful happened while I waited in line. Please recall that some time back I bought a gray "To Write Love on Her Arms" shirt. In months of wearing it, I've not gotten one comment on it. At Five Guys, I got *two*, from the cashier who passionately supports them, and from the guy who handed us our bag 'o food. Nice!

By the time we got back to the condo it was quite close to 8, and DWTS. SO we ate and watched the first hour (God bless you Buzz - you're trying so hard!) and then Ape took the boys to the pool. I joined them closer to 10 and then we all went back up when the pool closed.

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Sunday

Got up at 10 for Easter Mass. We wound up at Light of Christ Catholic in Clearwater. It was a very nice mass but I didn't agree with MIL who thought this church was as pretty as our St. Matthew's or St. Paul's. The service was very nice and the priest was jovial. From there, we found a park for the combined family Easter egg hunt, which went nicely - once we sorted out each family's Golden Egg deal lol. Then we were off to Clearwater Beach and Gondolier restaurant.

This restaurant is owned by the same family that owns the one we love in Sevierville, TN. From there we thought we'd walk to the beach, leaving the cars at Gondolier. We abandoned that notion when a tow truck pulled up to a Lexus SUV at a store two drives from us. Yep, the driver and his partner made short work of rolling the Lexus back on dollies, then grabbing it with the lift. While I understand why towing happens (a combination of city revenue sharing with tow companies mixed with businesses wanting spaces used by presumably paying customers) it still means someone's vacation was ruined. Not only that, but when the Lex started to roll down the drive, the tow driver was yanking on the side mirrors to stop it! I'd have been furious if that had been my very expensive vehicle being handled that way...

Fears of roving bands of wreckers fresh in our mind, we moved! It took a little patience and a little luck, but we found spots for both of us. I walked the crew to the beach, then walked Sis back because she never paid for her spot /facepalm I stayed back at the van and waited for the others - my legs were killing me from the jet ski action. We ended the night by driving back towards our place near the causeway and stopping at one of the waterfront pullouts to say our goodbyes to Sis & Co. as they were out of time. We're staying through Tuesday :3

Instead of a last-chance beach fling, we wound up rescuing a stingray. For some unknown reason, a ray was swimming along the coast and constantly skimming the water's edge. As he crept along the coast he finally got stuck and began to flap about, clearly in distress. Sis tried to move him, then gave up and handed me the stick, after petting him. I tried too and this hapless creature, dubbed "Stingy" by the kids, just could not fathom why he kept getting stuck. I stooped to pet him too, then kept shoving him out only to have him come back. Eventually, he took off away from the coast, in what seemed a purposeful manner. We left quickly then, not certain if he was at the coastline to play, or to check out the funny humans, or what. Also, I didn't want to see him smacked by any of a half-dozen rental skis also on the water...

Back at our place, it was AR time. And dang it, my cowboys went from last to first! Speedbump or no, they dominated the flagpole balance thing and the roadblock, leaving them plenty of time for the silly speedbump. Due to some major cab miscues, Steve and Allie wound up trading places, finishing last and being eliminated. Now? Watching Celeb Apprentice to get a peek at the new HP world at Universal! -squee!-

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Saturday

Today was... Interesting. The main event for today was another jet ski run at John's Pass. It took forever to get into Clearwater because of the traffic. Once there, we couldn't get to the parking garage because of bridge construction. So we found meters, and rounded up all the quarters we could. I wound up on meter feeding duty ^^

Even though we were on time, it took a bit to get signed in because a previous group roughed up their skis and the staff was trying to process the $800 damage fee - yikes! We eventually got on the water, with Bro and I on brand new skis, which meant the clocks actually worked. Just in case, I had the BK/SpongeBob watch on :3 All four of us opted for the Gulf and soon we were having a blast racing, chasing, and trying to jump wakes. The first big moment of the day happened when Ape cut left sharply and threw herself and Younger. I had been chasing their wake and turned forward just in time to see them bobbing in the water.

Bro and I had to work together to get Ape back up as she wound up having a full-blown panic attack when her vest rode up, covering her face. That, with the cold water sent her into an attack. It literally took almost 20 minutes to get her calmed down and back on. It didn't help that she still has a bad rotator cuff, making it hard to pull up. Eventually all of us were back on (I had to take three dips, between rescuing Ape and being thrown twice from Ape's ski). In addition to losing a third of our time, the SpongeBob watch was ruined...

From there we had some stress figuring out what to do next as some of us were hungry and some of us wanted to shop in John's Pass. We opted to hit a handful of stores (found some great-smelling lotion but didn't buy), and check the local restaurants at the same time. We didn't find anything to our liking food-wise, so we wound up looking farther afield. Based on recommendations from our previous condo front desk (Ape wanted Sis to see it), we wound up at Sloppy Joe's. Yes, same family. We had a long wait but it was well worth it! The food was really good and Sis preferred the Key Lime pie birthday snack here versus Bahama's.

By the time we left it was late but we stopped at a shaved-ice place and got some really good ices. The second drama-bit happened when we stopped at Target looking for Easter Egg stuff. Bran came to get me saying Ape needed me. Turns out Ape gashed her left foot on the bottom of her buggy as she was waiting for us. I wound up doing the cleanup while concerned Target folk looked on. She got quite a nasty gash and it took some doing to get it all up. I even had to wash her shoe as it had a lot of blood on it, which thankfully came off. Hopefully Easter will go better!

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Friday

Got up at around 10:30 and we took a bit of time getting out the door. The drive to Tampa was uneventful, other than seeing way too many disabled vehicles and crashes. Not sure why traffic was so confounded, but. Anyway, we suffered through and made it to Sailport. Sis & Co. were not far behind and we freshened up and headed to Bahama Breeze for Sis's 40th birthday din. I tried something new - Jamaican grilled chicken breast. It wasn't bad but the mango salsa was not to my liking.

From here, we needed to go to WalMart to get Easter morn' supplies, but we didn't know how to get there. Sis asked a fellow who was leaving as well, and not only did he give us great directions and offer to lead us (Hey! We had an AR-style fern!), he paid our tolls! It wasn't a terrible distance but it was far more than many would have ever done for a motley crew of strangers! We said profuse thanks and he left us at the entrance.

Ape grabbed some essentials for the week as well as Easter treats.