Of course I made an effort to accomplish things on my bucket list during this time. Here are the things I was able to fit in:
#11- Drive Through the Mountains
I knew we would be relatively close to the mountains, driving to Washington DC and down through North and South Carolina, but it was really difficult to figure out a route or a place to stop in order to find a good view. I had a few places I had found through google, but since our schedule was extremely tight the first few days of our trip, I had no idea what we would be able to fit in. What ended up happening was better than anything I had planned. Because we were on a budget, we decided to take the no-toll route to DC, which I had never taken before in my handful of trips there. As we approached West Virginia and Maryland, we began driving through hills which turned in to a beautiful mountain range-- and we ended up driving directly through it! It was so beautiful and incredible since it was so unexpected, it was first thing in the morning and it was the final stretch of a very long, overnight drive. It was also a relief since we didn't have to try to fit anything crazy in to experience it. :)
#30- Go to the Ocean
As I said before, we went to plenty of beaches. Here were some of the highlights of each:
* Jacksonville Beach- It was too cold to go swimming (about 70 degrees), so we ended up walking the beach and picking up sea shells. It wasn't the best beach we went to, but it's always exhilerating to see the ocean for the first time on a trip. It's the "we made it" kind of feeling, where you just relax and kind of soak it in.
* Turtle Shores (just south of Jacksonville)- The sand was ORANGE. Enough said.
* Cocoa Beach (by Cape Canaveral)- Courtney invited us to a beach party, which we stayed at until sunset. Brian tried to skimboard, which was highly entertaining.
* Miami Beach- the most BEAUTIFUL beach I have ever seen in my entire life! The water was blue-green. It was like living in a painting.
* Indian Rocks Beach (Clearwater)- It was our only gulf-side beach. But it was also the most beautiful day we had in Florida-- 82 degrees and clear skies-- so we were actually able to spend some time in the water and a several hours sunbathing. We also were able to watch the most BEAUTIFUL sunset.
#6- Go on a Picnic
We decided to have our picnic in Clearwater. It was the perfect place to have a picnic! Ideally, I would have liked to grill or bring home-cooked food, but since we were on vacation, we decided it would be easier to order a pizza. :) I had a blanket in the back of my car, so we laid it out and sat and watched the sun set for about an hour. Since we were on the west side of Florida, we got to watch it set directly over the water. It was the perfect day, probably one of my favorite parts of our vacation.
#1- Ride a Ferris Wheel
I was hoping one of the places we were already planning to go would have a ferris wheel (like Disney World), but unfortunately none of them did. So after our day at Disney World, Brian and I made a slight detour to a local "park" in Kissimmee that had an enormous ferris wheel. I say "park" but I'm not sure exactly what to call it. The outside part of the place was a lot like a carnival, with various rides, but the inside was very similar to Dave and Busters, with different games you could play for tickets, which you redeemed for prizes. Because it was after dark (we stayed at Magic Kingdom until the fireworks display), and kind of cold for Florida, the outdoor park was almost completely empty. So we were able to enjoy an extra long Ferris Wheel ride to ourselves. I can't remember the last time I was on a Ferris Wheel (and Brian said he didn't think he had ever been on one), but it was much more terrifying than I remembered. Maybe I was more fearless as a kid. They are SO tall-- the biggest ride in the park. The view was beautiful-- seeing the city at night-- and it was kind of exciting since it was a random little adventure after a long day at Disney World. Brian insisted we play ski ball afterwards inside (I actually beat his score, believe it or not) and we redeemed our 15 tickets for a finger catcher and a temporary tattoo (woo-hoo!)
#22- Read 5+ Books
I was able to exceed the number of books I was hoping to read this year on our 72 hour car ride. A few weeks before we left for our trip, I started reading the first book of the Hunger Games trilogy and finished it in about a week. Alyssa told me that she had all three audio books on her computer, so I used a flash drive to transfer them to my computer so we could listen to them on our car ride. The books are SO ADDICTING. It definitely took a lot of strength to wait two whole weeks to continue the series, and patience to re-listen to book 1 in the car with Brian. But we devoured the entire series-- they were so good. The last two books didn't end up working on my computer, so we read them out loud to each other from the Nook Brian bought me for Christmas. It was really fun to go through them together-- Brian was definitely as in to them as I was.
There really is no good way to summarize what took place in the series without completely giving away the ending to the first book. The story takes place in a future world which has been nearly destroyed by previous generations. The remaining population lives on what used to be the United States and is divided in to 12 districts. The districts are ruled by The Capitol, a wealthy region that acts as somewhat of a dictatorship, using the other districts' resources and leaving them hungry and helpless. Several years earlier, the districts had tried to revolt, but failed. In order to discourage them from revolting again, the Capitol developed the Hunger Games, in which two of each districts children (one girl and one boy between ages 12 and 18) were chosen every year to fight to death in an arena. For the poorest of the districts (who were weak with hunger) this was the equivalent of a death sentence. The main character in the book is Katniss, a 16-year-old who had spent years illegally hunting in order to provide food for her family. During the annual ceremony, her 12-year-old sister's name was chosen for the hunger games. Since her sister had zero chance of making it out alive, she volunteered to take her place-- something that almost never happened in the poorer districts. The rest of the story continues to go in a million unexpected directions from that point. If you plan to read these books, be prepared to spend some significant time reading them-- they are very difficult to put down.
#49- Go to Milwaukee
Half of our trip was zig-zagging through different cities and states that I had never been to and wanted to see. Milwaukee was one of them, although it seems kind of silly after seeing it. It was a lot smaller than I expected. But it was beautiful in the way I find Duluth beautiful because it was right off of Lake Michigan. Brian and I drove to the coast and I was able to walk out by the lake for a few minutes. We had just driven through the night from Florida and it was the "last stop" on our vacation before heading back to Minnesota. The only other significant thing that happened in Milwaukee was getting Love Potion ice cream from Baskin Robbins. I got a $2 gift certificate for Christmas and there aren't any in Minnesota. It wasn't really anything too special, but it was a good way to end our vacation. :)
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