Today I picked up AnnaMay from school. She was bouncing off the walls. Since Jay has a new job, we are waiting to leave until he gets off work for the evening. Nanny came over, my dad helped get the car loaded. AnnaMay found a new friend to take with her.
Finally, Jay arrived at home and the adventure began. We headed to Hardeeville, SC where we stopped at a Sleep Inn to spend the night. It is a creepy exit after dark. We do not plan to stop there again. We picked up some food from Wendy’s, checked in and went to bed. We all slept just fine and got packed up to leave at about 8:00. Which is perfect for our 1:00 check in to the house. And then about 15 minutes down the road AnnaMay yelled…Where is my phone?!?!?! Oh shoot. (No, she does not have a working iPhone it is my old one she uses like an iPod) I call and the wonderfully helpful hotel tells me I can come check. Gee thanks…Of course this is one of the areas where it is almost 7 miles to the next exit. We turned around and headed back. AnnaMay was panicking the whole way and apologizing for good measure too. We got back to the hotel and the front desk handed me the room key. I ran up and looked, sure enough even though we did a sweep of the room, the covers had gotten pulled up over it. I came out and gave AnnaMay her phone. For just a few moments I am her hero. We were back on the road again and making good time. We stopped next at the Florida Welcome Center. Apparently we had never stopped there with AnnaMay before. She thought it was awesome. She said this is as cool as a mall. We got free orange and grapefruit juice, took some pictures and got come snacks. (for some unknown reason AnnaMay loves vending machines and thinks it is great to get stuff from them)
We got back on the road and AnnaMay says she will wait until we get close to the house and then grab some food. Works for me! We continued to make great time and got to the general area of the house. AnnaMay spotted a Taco Bell. Her favorite–BLECK– so we got some food to go and head to the house. We were there by 1:30. Not bad at all! We got to the house. Can I just say how much I love this house? It is just so perfect for us. Jay unloaded everything while AnnaMay gobbled down her food and begged to swim. Nanny offered to stay and watch her swim while Jay and I ran to Publix for some groceries. Have I mentioned how awesome Nanny is? As we were getting ready to leave AnnaMay asks, “where is the swimming stuff?” Oops. Oh well at least I remembered her bathing suits unlike our last beach trip. Thankfully this is Florida so even the Publix had some good pool stuff.
First mail of the trip! She gets so excited to find it.
We got back from Publix and unpacked a bit and it is time to head to the POP to see if Chef Jose is working. (we have learned to go about 4:30 – it is early but the place is mostly empty and AnnaMay can handle it then)
I love this sign…
We got to the POP and we go ask for Chef Jose. He is there! AnnaMay is so excited. We ordered our food and got a pager. While we were waiting for the food we walked around the gift shop a bit. Our pager goes off and he brought out our food. Yum! We settled in to eat it and after a bit Chef Jose brought out a treat for AnnaMay and sat down to visit with us for a bit. He told us he is working every day but Monday. Cool, We told him we are planning to come most nights but Monday when we are at MNSSHP. AnnaMay told him she wanted beans tomorrow. He said he will order them for her. He also brought her out a treat.
When we finished up eating, we headed back through the gift shop and AnnaMay spotted the Pin Board out. We headed over and traded some pins.
AnnaMay chilling in the 50’s
After that we headed back to the house where AnnaMay swam again and we finished unpacking and settled in. As we were unpacking, AnnaMay came in and asked about tomorrows plans. I started to tell her and realize…We have an ADR tomorrow evening for dinner at 1900 Park Fare. And we told Chef Jose we would see him and he ordered special food! Jay tried so hard to contact him by phone to let him know we will not be there but couldn’t manage. So, finally AnnaMay said write him a note. That is what we did. We wrote him a note and planned to drop it off the next morning. Now, time for bed so we can have a fun day tomorrow….
Anxious Mouse 