We're BAAACCCCKKKKK!

Yay! The best thing about a vacation is coming home. The dog was thrilled to see us. I'm sure she thought we'd fallen off the face of the earth, despite a very full food dish and multiple water dishes to keep her fed and watered while we were away.

Our trip to Wild Adventures certainly was an adventure! The GPS kept changing it's mind about the directions and we added a few miles to our course along the way. Post-baby bladders aren't built for long road trips in sparsely populated (meaning very few bathroom opportunities) places. Each pit stop was greeted with sighs of relief and a mad dash to the bathroom. One tiny store in the middle of nowhere apparently catered to all of the needs of it's citizens as it featured the usual beer, candy, chips, newspapers, magazines... and a "lifestyle" dispenser in the one unisex bathroom. Luckily the smallest one can't read and the ADD one was lost in a daydream and never inquired about goat weed and it's herbal cure for certain male dysfunctions or the other 'items' available for only 75 cents each.

It took us four hours plus to get from our house to the hotel and the kids decided the long, boring drive during which stretches of millions of pine trees were broken up by the occasional intersection of country roads and small towns, was worth it once they got a peek at the pool... and the pizza parlor next door. Pizza first, then pool workout to burn off pizza calories. Our hotel also featured a gym, so Rob set the alarm (after I tried to set the alarm, but instead changed the time by about 6 hours), and I got up and went downstairs to workout. I rushed back up so Rob could go down and squeeze in a workout... but he decided to sleep an extra 30 minutes instead. Slacker.

While I sweated on the elliptical machine watching the morning news, the weather forecast scrolled across the screen: 96 degree Fahrenheit... heat index to hit 100. Great day to spend outdoors... all... day.... long.... don't you think?

Since we like to keep things up-tempo and dramatic, we started the day by losing Rob's blackberry. His work-issued Blackberry. We called the number. No Answer. Rob and his dad went on a hunt, back-tracking every step of the morning. I called the number again, and someone answered! The lost had been found. Phew. NOW we're ready to adventure! Rob tried to pay for our $7 parking fee with a $50 bill... which the parking attendant couldn't accept, so we scrounged up 6 singles and enough change for the $7. Luckily we had a buy two tickets, get 1 free coupon, so our park tickets only cost us $30 each. Good thing we had that discount. Little did we know we had just purchased our way into the land of $3 bottles of water and $4 cokes the size of a 12 ounce can.... $35 for a hamburger/fries lunch for 4 (2 kid-sized portions included)... on the hottest day yet of the summer.

I now have a new get rich plan! Build an amusement park, charge modest admission, but don't allow any outside drinks/food, etc. inside and charge insanely high prices for said food and drinks inside the park. Brilliant, huh?

Any who... J.T. LOVED the animals.... black bears, alligators, birds, snakes, tigers, elephants, giraffes... all of which were rescue animals or retired circus animals... (we had to stop through the Alapaha preserve on the way out to say good bye to the alligators) and Abby was enamored with the magic show and safari train ride. We walked for miles in 100 degree weather, sweating like marathon runners and sucking down $3 bottles of water and sharing the $6 souvenir cup (only $2 for refills all day, anywhere in the park) while trying to keep up with Abby (we only briefly lost track of her once) from 10 a.m. until 5 p.m. before retreating to the hotel and its nice, cool pool.

The kids loved it, the adults survived and the washing machine is back to it's normal never-ending cycle. And the dog is lavishing us with happy whines of delight to remind us that we were missed and loved.

P.S. I will post pictures tomorrow. I can't find the thingy that connects the camera to the computer to upload the photos and I'm far too tired to search for it now.