On with the trip

Sorry it's been so long since I posted last. I don't have a reason for not posting sooner actually, so I'll just carry on with the story of my trip!

Once I got out of bed on Sunday morning I met Alyssa's aunt and then the four of us, Alyssa, her uncle, her aunt and I, all sat around. Then we decided that since it had stopped raining that we would go out for brunch, so that's what we did. We got into the car and headed out, Alyssa's uncle Mark pointing various landmarks out to me all the way which was good. We got to the restaurant and they told us it would be an hour wait... so we left! They normally have people sitting on the deck that goes around the building, but since it was still very windy there was only room inside. We headed to another restaurant and had a really nice brunch there. We ate a lot of really good food!

We went back to the house and sat around for a while and then we went shopping. Mark didn't go with us seeing as he loathes shopping. We went to a place called Hyde Park. It's a little park with shops all around it and down a few side streets. I bought 3 tops in one store, a good haul if you ask me, and then we went for a drive along the shoreline of Tampa Bay in that area. If I am recalling correctly Mark said that that area had the oldest homes in Tampa Bay. There were some really big and really nice homes along there, and some really nice normal sized homes too! We then went to an ice cream store where you pick the kind of ice cream you want and then they fold it and add in different toppings you want. Just typing that out made me drool a little in remembrance of it! It's not as good as BDI, but it's still dang good! I just wish I could recall the name of it now though, I think it was Coldcreek or something like that.

We went back home and I put the rest of my ice cream in the freezer, I was still pretty stinkin' full from brunch and so getting a medium ice cream wasn't my smartest plan ever (though it did help round out a nice breakfast the next morning!). We watched some TV that evening and later on had some left overs from the meal they had the night before. We then watched 'The Terror Of Tiny Town,' which is, of course, an excellent black and white all midget cast western! Alyssa's uncle Mark had found out that his uncle had been an actor back in the day and that he starred in his own movie, so he looked into it and found a copy of it. If you ever get a chance to see it and you are in the mood to laugh, watch it! There's a penguin, a vampire and Shetland ponies that look like they would rather be anywhere else doing anything else!

The next day Alyssa and I got up, made some tea, heated up some apple pie (I also got my leftover ice cream from the freezer!!!), and went and sat out on the deck. It was pretty fantastic to be able to go out on a deck around 9 in the morning and have breakfast in sweat pants and a sweatshirt in April! Monday was still pretty windy and the wind was cool, but I wasn't about to complain because, well, I was in Florida! We later got up enough energy to get ready and go to the mall, but not just any mall. We went to the International Plaza, known to us as the International Mall of Supermodels (long story, though if you would like to think it's because Alyssa and I are beautiful enough to be a supermodels you go right ahead and keep on thinking right thoughts!)! We spent FOUR HOURS there! I don't like to go shopping at the best of times, I think it's a waste of time unless I need something and go to get it! It was a good time though and we enjoyed ourselves.

While we were there I looked for a shirt that I had told a friend that I would bring back. I couldn't find it. We drove to a university bookstore... turned out to be the wrong university so before we made fools of ourselves and asked them where we'd be able to get the shirt I wanted, we left! We went to a few other shops and couldn't find anything so we finally went home. We went and sat on the dock and were feeding the fish in the lake when Mark came home so the three of us went to go pick up the car that Alyssa and I were renting to get out to Jacksonville for the concert the next day.

We rented a Murano, we named him Murray! We also rented a GPS! OH MAN, we would have been so lost without Money Penny, which we of course named our GPS because the voice sounded like Money Penny... it was great! While we were in the rental place I got dizzy and didn't feel so great. I went to from burning up to being really cold, but we got back home and had something to eat and then I was good again. I guess with the time change, the change in the weather from Winnipeg to Florida, and not having had anything to eat since our pie in the morning my body was out of whack.

Anyway, this is a lot, so I'm going to post this and then start writing right away again so that I don't wait another 3 weeks before I write again!