Florida: Thursday through Sunday

We've been having an amazing time in "The Sunshine State" these past couple of days. Life is slowing down, and yet there is so much to occupy one's time. One of the best parts about this part of Florida is that you can get almost anywhere on your bike! Every day we go out for a couple of bike rides to the various beach towns in the area. But before I forget, let me mention the other states which we went through before arriving here.

...Mississippi...

...and Alabama... oh, Alabama the Beautiful.... pardon me.


We sped through these states so fast that it was all one big blurr of green, but I must say that the Welcome Center in Mississippi was MUCH better than the one in Louisiana. We highly recommend it for restroom stops in the future!

We made it to Florida around dinner time. Here is Rach enjoying our favorite feature of the new Schroeder mini-van... side windows that roll down! (see the bike path in the background... it goes on for 20 miles![stop drooling Ben])

Of course the second we got here Eva put on her swimsuit and jumped into the pool. She was swimming for the next 2 hours straight!



Our Grandma Sandy and her husband, Mr. Ray, have an amazing house! Our (the girl's) room is upstairs, but we have a balcony with a spiral staircase strategically located so that we can sneak out to the pool at night. Here is Rach modeling the staircase.


Today we went out to lunch at a great restaurant, Mitchell's Fish Market... we would HIGHLY recommend it if you are ever in the area. After dinner we ordered a few desserts to split, and one of them is called the "Shark Fin Pie". It was basically a mud pie on steroids (with layers of peanut butter inside, and a honey roasted peanut coating layer on the outside!) Sadly, we forgot the camera today, but some other person on the Internet already took one for us. Here is the photo to give you an idea of the size of this small dessert (no, we have no idea who this lady is). The seven people at our table split the thing and even at that we couldn't finish it. I'm sure it would only take a growing 15 year old boy to put us to shame, though (note: the ratio of men to women was 2 to 5... nuf said)


After that we came home, got comfy, and then went out to the beach. Here I am with my sweet, little (Hah!) sister. Note the presence of a video camera in my hand. What are we filming, you ask? A music video, of course!

Here is Eve, shell collector extraordinaire!

And here's a video that dad took of us on the beach.

We'll post more as the week progresses.

The Schroedenaters