Vacation Wrap-up

Well, we're back home in the flatlands of Northwest Ohio...and amazingly enough, it was actually spring-like when we got here today. No snow, no freezing temps...highs in the 50s and storms on the way.

Of course, we'd rather be in Florida on the beach...but we are glad to be home. Especially after the drive we had today. Suffice it to say, driving thru downtown Cincinnati in the pouring rain is not fun. It rained today for three hours (and we were only in the car for 8 hours) -- the sun finally came out somewhere near Lima. It made for a very long day.

All in all, the vacation was wonderful. A few highlights:

• Driving down to Florida sounded like a good idea - we thought we'd save some money or some crazy thing like that. Note to selves: next time, fly to Florida. At it's cheapest, gas was $2.15 a gallon. And then there was the SWAT team in Kentucky. Long story short: we stopped for gas, but the station we were going to stop at was surrounded by members of the local SWAT team, with guns cocked and ready to shoot someone in either the gas station or the Waffle House next door. We didn't stay long enough to find out.

• The traffic on I-75 is incredibly BAD. The speed limit in Tennessee, Georgia and Florida is 70 mph -- which of course means we should all go at least 80 mph. Very scary to say the least.

• Florida was warm, sunny and wonderful.

• Olivia had her first trip to the beach -- we visited both Clearwater Beach and Siesta Key Beach. We saw 5 or 6 dolphins in Siesta, which was very, very cool. Olivia was a very brave little girl -- she had no fear of the ocean. (She hasn't seen JAWS yet, give her time!).

• We visited the manatee viewing center in Apollo Beach. Each winter manatees come into the warm waters of the discharge canal of Tampa Electric's Big Bend Power Station when the water in the bay goes below a certain temperature. I highly recommend a visit if you're down there in the winter or early spring. (Tampa Electric Manatee Viewing Center.)

• And of course, there is Disney World. Olivia met Pooh, Tigger, Eyeore, Piglet and many other Disney characters during our visit. We rode a few rides -- the best was "It's a Small World" (mainly because that's the only one where Olivia didn't cry). We had dinner with Winnie-the-Pooh and his friends. The only bad thing about this part of the trip, was that we needed more time at Disney. Time really does fly when you're having fun.