Spring Break: Travels and Lodging

When we travel someplace new, I always want to see and do as much as we can in that part of the country in case we don't get back anytime soon.  Our spring break trip plan started with the seed of the idea to visit Biscayne National Park (one of Adelie's national park picks for her 4th grade year) in southern Florida.  Finding that it was right next to the Everglades, we quickly added that national park to the itinerary.  I had been wanting to find an opportunity to take Adelie to Weeki Wachee State Park near Tampa to see their world famous mermaids, and although it was a further away on the gulf side of Florida, it seemed like a necessary addition to our trip.  As I dove into the planning, we then determined that we couldn't be THAT close to the Florida Keys without at least spending a bit of time there as well.  So what started as a quick Florida trip to see a few national parks quickly turned into our very own driving tour of southern Florida.

And it was great!!

We drove to Chicago and then flew to Florida.  We flew into Ft. Lauderdale and out of Tampa on Southwest.  Our drives to and from Chicago were just fine.  We listened to part of Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets on our way there and part of The Mysterious Benedict Society on the way back.

 The kids passed the time on the airplane listening to music, eating snacks, playing, and watching movies.  Our flights were both slightly delayed, but we had no other issues with our time in the car, airport, or on the plane.  Our kids have become really good travelers and each trip just gets easier.

Thanks to State Farm, we get a crazy good deal on rental cars.  We spent our week driving around in a brand new Traverse.  There were 7.5 miles when we drove it out of the parking deck and was spotless with that new car smell.   When we returned it 1100 miles later, it did not have that new car look about it anymore.  There were snack crumbs and sand and sunscreen. There were footprints on the seats and fingerprints on the windows.  It had a very lived in look about it when we were done, but it served us well for our travels.

Our first 3 days were spent in an Air Bnb in Homestead, just south of Miami.  It was a cute 3 bedroom guest house.  It wasn't fancy, but was clean and quiet and the owners who lived on the property were very nice and welcoming.  (I usually take pictures of the places we stay, but I forgot to get pictures of this one.  My bad.)  It wasn't anything special, but it was a nice place to come home to at the end of each day.

We spent one night in a Hampton Inn in Marathon while visiting the Florida Keys.  The kids loved the pool, the rooms were nice and clean, and they had a fantastic free breakfast as well.  Those are our 3 top priorities when looking for a hotel, so this one was a winner.

Our last 3 days were spent in this great water-front Air Bnb near Weeki Wachee.  It was our favorite of the trip.

The kitchen, living spaces, and bedrooms were really nice and met our needs.  It had a large washer and dryer, which is something I always appreciate.  But the best part of the house was the back porch and the location.

The big, wrap-around screened in porch overlooking the water was absolutely lovely.  We ate our meals out here, relaxed out here, and enjoyed the Florida weather without dealing with the Florida bugs.

The location of the house was perfect as well.  It was right on a canal that was just a short paddle away from the Weeki Wachee River.  We had kayaks and paddleboards available for us to use, and we made good use of them as we explored our canal and the river.

I loved paddling to the river and spending time on the river, but the kids more enjoyed playing games, swimming, and paddling around in the canal behind our house.  (That worked great as we could easily watch them while relaxing on that lovely screened in porch.)

All the places we stayed during our trip were winners, but Weeki Wachee was my favorite house and favorite setting.  It was a full week of traveling, of driving, of exploring, so it was so nice to have good places to come "home" to at the end of each day.