About a year ago Erin and I started brainstorming how to make 8th grade graduation special for Abby and she suggested that we plan a trip, just the three of us, and let Abby pick where we'd go and what we'd do. It would be a trip made by her, for her...a few days to just focus on being together us girls. Around Christmas sometime we told Abby about the surprise and she said she wanted to go to the beach!
She didn't have more specifics beyond that so Erin suggested Sarasota and we were off to the races with a plan! Erin lived in Sarasota for about 6 months when she was still doing shows and she'd been wanting to go back to visit for a long. She'd talked about Owen's Fish Camp (the only "must do" item on the trip list from Erin) that I had also been dying to check it out.
We started making a plan, booking tickets and an AirBnB and planning the details. It was fun to plan with Abby. She loved looking at the houses and doing research about what to do in the area. We flew out Wednesday - EARLY morning...we had a 7am flight. I'm tired just typing it...lol! And we returned home on Sunday afternoon. It was the perfect amount of time and we had the perfect trip! It was a little rainy when we arrived on Wednesday but we skirted it all with our plans and then it rained Thursday so we used that day to explore and shop.
Friday we dedicated to "beaching" (I still have a pretty distinct sunburn line down my left arm - the only part of me that was outside of the umbrella)...and Saturday we did a combo of shopping, visiting a Big Cat Rescue and a little more time at the beach and then Sunday we packed up, headed back north to Tampa and back home.
It was very different to travel just us 3 girls. We lived at a different pace than we do when we're a big family group (and a much slower pace then when Ryan is involved)! We ate girl dinner (ie: whatever the heck we wanted) around 5:30 most night (you know I love a 5:30 dinner!) and we watched 90's romcoms to get Abby in the know about all the cinematic gems she's been missing out on (I mean...13 going on 30...how could we not?!?!)
While our AirBnB left more than a handful of things to be desired (I was less than pleased with it), it did have a great location, just a short walk to the public access. We managed to catch the golden hour sunsets every night we were there (except Wednesday). I feel like we successfully landed "beach" for Abby.
Oh gosh! How could I forget the two wildlife things Abby picked to do on the trip!? First, when we arrived on Wednesday, we drove north of Tampa about an hour to a wildlife rescue park, in Homosassa Springs, that also had manatees on site. Manatees are my most favorite animal (as a child I even donated part of my allowance each year to adopting a manatee) and I've never seen one in real life. Erin said that when she was living down there there were Manatees everywhere so I was excited to try and see them. Turns out in the winter months they move closer inland to the warmer, shallower waters and in June they live much further out to sea. We did get to see two of them in a rehab tank of sorts but it wasn't quite what I had envisioned. That's ok! I guess we'll just have to go back in the winter months some time...maybe as a whole family. Aw shucks!
The second wildlife thing we did was the Big Cat Rescue Abby found about 40 minutes north of Sarasota. Erin and I joked that it might have been owned by Carol Baskin's sister (of Tiger King fame) but we have no idea. There were lots of big cats to see - we'll give them that! I bet they had 40 big cats ranging from tigers to lions and even a Ligar (which admittedly was WILD to see so close in real life. He was HUGE!). They had other animals too. Bears and monkeys and reptiles and all sorts of things. It was cool, but we felt like cages and pens were pretty small and the animals were doing a lot of pacing making you think they were uncomfortable. If someone is thinking of visiting I'd say it's good for little kids (not much older than Abby) and only good for 2-3 hours max. The park itself is was pretty small and we were all ready to head out after about 2 hours.
My favorite part of the trip? That moment right there. Sitting side by side with Erin and Abby reading our books and just soaking it all in. All that being said, I sure did miss Hazel and Ryan. It just wasn't the same without them. I think spending time apart making memories makes for fun stories to share, but more fun than that is actually sharing the memories together. Franny - I know you felt a little left out when we went on this trip without you, but you're up in just 3 short years honey! I can't wait to see where you pick to visit.
