Florida Spring Break – April 2015
We have already been home from Spring Break for a month but I wanted to make sure I wrote about our awesome Spring Break in Florida this year. We had such an enjoyable time and it was really hard to come back from. We left Richmond after the kids got out of school on Good Friday and flew to Wilmington, NC (KILM). We spent a nice evening seeing the sites from the city we used to live in. We saw our old house, went to Wrightsville Beach where Lori and I got engaged and had dinner at Flaming Amy’s, which was one of our favorite places to eat. The reason we went to Wilmington is we were planning to fly another Pilots N Paws mission on our way down to Florida. Jack the Border Collie needed to get to Florida and he would join us on our trip down the following day.
We woke early on Saturday morning, had a quick breakfast at McDonald’s and then arrived at the airport. Jack met us and we started our trip down the coast. The weather wasn’t bad but we did spend a considerable amount of time in the clouds over South Carolina and Georgia. I even started to pickup some trace ice over the Myrtle Beach area but a small altitude change and this wasn’t an issue anymore. We stopped in Gainesville, Florida (KGNV) for fuel and then made the quick 1 hour hop to our final destination of Sarasota, Florida (KSRQ). After saying goodbye and wishing Jack the best at his new home we made our way to Anna Maria Island which is off the coast of Bradenton. We had a house rented for the week that was a very short walk from the beach. We couldn’t have been happier with the rental house and the area was absolutely beautiful. The weather outlook for the week was also perfect with every day forecast to be in the mid-80’s, reasonable humidity and low probability of rain. We knew it would be a perfect week!
Sunday was Easter and somehow the Easter Bunny found us even though we were on vacation. After a relaxing morning we spent a few hours on the beach and Jeff & the kids enjoyed the water. The water was very clear and not too terribly cold – very refreshing. After lunch and getting cleaned up we explored Anna Maria Island. Not much was open due to the holiday but we made notes of places we would return to later in the week. We went to dinner at Swordfish Grill just off the island in Cortez and had seats out on the bay. A band playing, beautiful view of the White Pelicans and water and great weather. The atmosphere was perfect!
On Monday we headed into Tampa to go to Busch Gardens. We had previously purchased Busch Gardens season passes here in Williamsburg, VA that are also good for the parks in Florida – including Sea World. We had an excellent time and really enjoyed the rides and shows. The family enjoyed the flume and the Congo River Rapids. Hannah and Jeff rode a couple of the roller coasters together too that they really enjoyed. The Sheikra was very intense with a 200 foot vertical drop! The only rain we saw all week was a thunderstorm on the way back to the rental from Tampa. Tuesday was another beach day for us. We then spent time again exploring and shopping on Anna Maria Island. We went out to the Anna Maria City Pier and then had dinner at The Beach House.
We don’t like to stay in one place for too long so on Wednesday we were back in the Tampa area. Lori and Hannah spent a couple of hours on a tour at Big Cat Rescue. This happened to be very close to where Jeff lived for a few years as a child so he drove around seeing his old house and school. Afterwards the family spent the afternoon at Adventure Island which is the water park across from Busch Gardens. We had a great time enjoying the park! On Thursday we were on the go again and drove all the way over to Orlando where we spent the day at Sea World. We’ve already gotten excellent use out of passes that we purchased and now will have the rest of the summer.
Vacation time seems to fly much faster than normal time. Friday was our last day and we spent more time on the beach than prior days. The water was warmer than any prior day and it was a very relaxing day. We ended up back at Swordfish Grill for dinner as we had really enjoyed it there earlier in the week and decided this would be good for our last night in Florida. We were off early Saturday morning and after reviewing the weather Jeff had determined we could make the trip back to Richmond non-stop. Jeff filed for 17,000 feet and at the appropriate time all put on our oxygen cannulas. Jeff had the oxygen system filled the prior day and we had previously all practiced using oxygen at lower altitudes. We were prepared for this and it paid off. Less than 4 hours later we were landing at our home airport in Richmond and it was only lunchtime! Click here to see our track on FlightAware. At times we were getting ground speeds in the 180-190 knot range (210-220 mph). At one point we started to pickup a little ice at 17,000 feet but I utilized my de-ice boots and then descended to 13,000 to complete the flight and the ice was a non-issue
You know you have had a good vacation when you don’t want it to end. This trip was one of those times where we couldn’t have asked for a better family trip. We experienced near perfect weather, warm water, multiple beautiful sunsets, fun times in the amusement parks, and most importantly much needed family time. Time to start planning the next one! Click here to see all of our pictures from our week in Florida.
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Looks like it was an awesome vacation!!! Great pic’s, Mary and I can’t believe how grown up the kids are. I’m glad you guys left us some good wx for our trip to Marathon in the following weeks.
We are looking forward to catching up soon.