Spring Break #2

Hello!

One small oddity of living in New England is the fact that the Public Schools have TWO spring breaks. One week in February (I guess that can be referred to as "Winter Break"), and one week in April.

Months ago, we planned to visit Florida this break. Here's a synopsis of the trip.

MILWAUKEE. "Wait," you say: "Isn't Milwaukee in Wisconsin, not Florida??!?" Well. If you research and study the Internet long enough, you can find yourself a flight from Boston to Ft. Myers, Florida, VIA MILWAUKEE, and save your family hundreds of dollars. Just ask Frank. He did it!

We had a full day "layover" in Milwaukee, and since none of us had been to Wisconsin before, we rented a car and explored.

JELLY BELLIES. We took the tour of the Jelly Belly factory, and of course they spit you out in the store, with a free sample counter to try the new flavors. Along the tour we saw amazing masterpieces of Jelly Belly artwork, from Queen Elizabeth, to the famous farmer & his wife.

And of course Ronald Reagan, who made Jelly Bellies popular in a BIG way, by eating them on his Presidential campaign. (Truly. I'm not making this up. Ronald Reagan made Jelly Bellies famous in the late 70's, and they dedicate a whole wall to him.)

HARLEY-DAVIDSON MUSEUM. There's a Harley museum in Milwaukee, believe that or not! I'm not even a big motorcycle fan, but the museum was pretty cool. They have a statue guy doing a wheelie in the front, and inside they have the history of motorcycles, including really old ones and motorcycles during war time, and a whole room of seats and engines they have used over time. You can get on them, and hear the different engines revving up.

I was very pleasantly interested and surprised.









OKEECHOBEE. Ok, we DID finally make it to Florida! If you look at a map of the state, there is a huge lake in the middle. That's Lake Okeechobee, and Frank's parents live right on the western edge of it. They have a lovely house that David (Frank's dad) practically built by himself, and the garden is chock full of yummy vegetables.















FISHING. The kids spent time fishing off of their dock in the backyard, in the canal behind their house.









Teresa caught not only fish, but a turtle too! Of course it was all catch-and-release. Kara and Teresa got pretty good at taking the hooks out quickly.











FLORIDA KEYS. We could not go to Florida without visiting the Keys. After a few days we drove down to Key Largo, with warm temps and sunshine. They had just finished a busy couple of weeks of the traditional "spring break" around Easter weekend, so it was pretty quiet for us. One day, in fact, we had the boat almost to ourselves as we went...

SCUBA DIVING AND SNORKELING. Aaahhh, THIS is why people come to the Keys! We could not have asked for better days for these two activities. Sunshine, 80 degrees (not too hot yet), and the water was around 76 degrees. We use wetsuits regardless of the water temps; for whatever reason, we get cold in ANY water. But at least if you start at 76 degrees, you have a fighting chance to stay warm longer in a wetsuit.



Day 1 snorkel/scuba trip had absolutely calm waters. Fish, more fish, and more fish. Day 2 was a little choppier, but still only 1-2 foot waves. Heaven.

THROWING UP. Ok, lest you think that we only have bliss during our vacations. We still had puking. (I didn't take any photos of that, sorry to disappoint...) Poor Kara had her antibiotics without a meal one time (yes we are still working on the end of her lengthy prescription to fight off the Lyme Disease). Made her sick to her stomach.

And then I, too, was nauseous between dives on the second day. Please just let me die, I am thinking to myself. "Get back under the water," the divemaster tells me. "The seasickness will go away." Right. I SOOO did not believe him, but figured I could not possibly feel any worse than I did at that moment. He was right: as soon as I got down under again, it went away.

KAYAKING. The next morning we took turns kayaking around the bay of the resort where we stayed. Very pretty, very calm. The kids did pretty well.

All in all, it was a very nice escape!

(Now it's back to reality, and BOY is it hard to get back to work after a vacation!)

Have a good week! Kari

Number 3??

Hola!

"They Say" that adversity always comes in threes. I have the third one for you!

Let's re-cap; details are in previous blog posts.

#1: David's spinal surgery for scoliosis . OK, I admit, we planned that one. It was not a surprise. But it has been a big deal to work with David's surgery, hospital stay, and recovery.

#2: Torrential rains causing our basement flooding...twice. 10 inches in 3 days the first round, then 5 more inches in 2 days the second round. Everybody keeps saying "I've lived here 20 years and I've never seen water like this!" For approximately 3 weeks now, we have had varying (large) amounts of water in our basement.

Now for#3: Kara has been diagnosed with Lyme Disease. (Well...it's really not as bad as it sounds. Anything with "disease" at the end sounds frightfully bad.) It's a New England thing, passed along by infected deer ticks, for Pete's sake! These may be as big as a pinhead. You're supposed to check your kids for ticks all summer, especially if they've been playing in the woods where they may pick up ticks. Often there will be a bullseye rash: a ring with a dot as one symptom, or maybe flu-like symptoms. Or maybe they won't have those symptoms! It varies. Then it goes to their joints. I took her to the doctor with a swollen knee--no injury, no reason for the swelling. That was the cue, for the doctor. They did a blood test and it was positive for Lyme.

She has probably had it for weeks or even months, they say. The treatment is 28 days on an antibiotic. (Thank you, thank you for medicines, I say!!!)

So, if I may make a request, I would like that to be our #3. And that's all for awhile.

Here are some pictures of the flooding--you can click to enlarge. Our intersection 1/2 mile away is still closed (the one the kids are wading through).

We have a never-ending swimming area in the driveway...

Here are the yukky water-logged wallboards...

And what would we have done without the wet/dry vaccuum...

There is still water coming in the basement, but it's really slow now.

It's a beautiful Easter Morning! Maybe we'll focus a few minutes on that today. :) Kari