Chris and Kareena Watkins: Florida Trip - Part 1

One might wonder why, during a global pandemic a family with 4 kids would still travel from one COVID hotspot to another? Well, we knew we could cancel our flights and suspend our trip until the next spring, and we considered it. But we also prayed. And one week before we were to depart, we decided there was no going back - we were going to do this.

And we did.

And we are SO GLAD WE DID!

These kids did great with all that traveling brought - security, layovers, changing planes, inter-airport trams, and in our case, wearing a mask.

We arrived at the Lungren's house and immediately there were lizards and frogs and well...alligators that fascinated us. There was a huge alligator out of the water behind their house eating something and it was crazy.

The Lungren's also had a pool that our kids were sooooo excited to swim in. The one thing about Florida that we didn't expect was lightning - the craziest we've ever witnessed - and we had a very close call, one that I am convinced that our children were divinely protected. And so, for posterity's sake, I'll share the story. There was a storm, but the Lungren's see these storms all of the time, and they had given the kids a warning that in a few minutes, they would need to get out. Well, not a few minutes later, lightning struck a tower about 100 feet away from where all of the kids were in the pool. The flash and sound were terrifying - but we felt SO BLESSED that everyone was ok. We escorted the kids out of the pool and that ended our swimming for the evening. Talk about starting our trip out with a BANG!

NEXT we headed to the Florida Keys with the Lungrens. We had McKenzie and Sadie ride with us while Ty rode down to the Keys with the Lungrens. Every potty stop, you had to have on a mask to go inside anywhere.

We made it to our vacation rental! The vacation rental was on the Sugarloaf Key (I think). It was a fabulous place to stay, right on the water with lizards, beautiful greenery and trees, and the water was a whole other universe of living things!

FRESH COCONUTS.....I was in heaven!

Ty got to go ocean fishing on the Lungren's boat in the Keys.

Good quality time!

SMATHER'S BEACH

My favorite beach in the Keys! The water was clear and practically currentless....

The kids gained some snorkel practice!

The water was about 89 degrees....and Grace LOVED it!

While we were there, two people and a preacher showed up and had a wedding 15 yards away from where I was hanging out with Grace on the beach. It was entertaining.

The kids would play in the canal that was right behind our rental. There crabs, lobster, barracuda and a bunch of other fish I can't name....just right there!!!! It was SO COOL.

Ty and Carter with one of their catches!

While the boys were fishing, we went to the Turtle Hospital. It was so cool to see all of the different turtles up close, but it was also SO HOT. Add a mask, and I'm glad the turtle hospital wasn't huge. Oh, and the tall blonde in the picture is Malory. She's the Lungren's favorite babysitter and she came to the Keys with us to help with the kiddos.

Key Deer really exist! They are much smaller than regular deer and kind of cute!

Blue Line Tile Fish

Matchy-Matchy

Dinner!

The boys also caught these spider crabs in the canal and we ate them!

On a crazy rainy day, we headed to Key West and I enjoyed Fresh Key Lime Pie! They wouldn't let you in until your temperature was taken, and it was expensive, AND SO DELICIOUS. I wanted fresh Key Lime Pie in the KEYS! And I got it!

Fort Zachary Taylor was a great beach and if COVID wasn't hampering things, there would have been some cool things to do/see. At least we had access to the beach and snorkeling.

Brandon and Cameron made us the most amazing battered fish!!! It was SO GOOD.

Chris and I enjoyed a date night out and the food was AMAZING. The place was called Blue Heaven - and the name was accurate about the food. We did sit at a random table in the dirt - not as fancy as the food - but added to the character!

My Yellow Snapper meal...SO TASTY!

The Boat crew!

While Chris was with the Lungren's and Ty doing some boat stuff, I took Tate, Grace, ad Libby to the aquarium. See their faces in the pic above? They have no clue (neither do I) about what we are going to go through for the next. Long story short, we got stuck on the two-way highway back to our key for 3 hours...just me, Grace, Tate and Libby going nowhere because of a manhunt/police shootout. At the time, we had no idea what was going on-we just knew we were all stuck on the road, and I guess that was a good thing.

Libby was my helper and it was a HUGE BLESSING that I had just nursed Grace before we headed out on our journey. But at one time it was Grace's dinner time and I had some baby food, but no spoon. I found a brand new little syringe that I kept in my purse for saline solution and I would suck up the food and put it into Grace's mouth. Tate went through phases of screaming/tantruming and being patient. I didn't have a DVD player or any of the kindles in the van, so were were on our own to find entertainment. And then, we became the entertainment! Mind you, there was a double-decker tour bus 1 car behind us, so as I would get out to get Grace out of her carseat, or my kids were going nuts in the van, I felt like we were a fishbowl. At one point, Tate had to pee. So I had to leave Libby and Grace in the van and run to the other side of the road (at which point a nice couple parked by us asked if everything was ok and if I needed any help as I was running Tate in front of their truck) and take Tate potty while the tour bus enjoyed the show. We got home over 3 hours later hungry, tired, and full of wiggles and a story.