Sunday, February 20, 2011

Siesta Keys

I was looking forward to Saturday ALL week. I could not wait to spend the day with just my family. We decided to take a little drive to Sarasota to go to Siesta Keys Beach. The drive is just over an hour, not too bad (unless you don't look at the map before hand). As much fun as we had, the trip was sort of a disaster.
Ada did pretty well on the drive, but she started getting impatient when we were about 20 min away from the beach. We had to stop at a tourist info booth to grab a map because we were not sure how to get there. I let Ada jump out of the car and run around for a bit and she was in heaven. When we tried to load her back up, she wrapped her arms around Scott and held on tight. She did NOT want to get back in the car.
Once we got close to the beach, we decided to stop at a store really quick to grab a bucket and shovel for Ada. That was probably a bad idea because once we got to the parking lot, it was a MESS! For an hour we drove around and around and around waiting for someone to leave. Yes, people left many times, but we were always on the other side of the parking lot or waiting behind a line of cars when that happened. SO annoying. We finally drove around to look for other parking and decided we could not justify paying $20 (Even IF it was helping out the Salvation Army). By this time, I am sitting in the back seat with Ada and all of us are miserable and hungry. Ada got restless and started pinching me and pulling my hair. I would get upset and grab her arm and hold so she couldn't pull/pinch then she would cry because I wouldn't let her do it.
At one point Scott pulled over and said that we were going to a yard sale that we just passed because we were driving him nuts. We opted to go to lunch instead.
Once we had food in our stomachs, we were a happy family once again. We found parking for $10 (still too high for us, but after driving around the beach parking lot for another 10 minutes, we gave up).
WE MADE IT. Ada is overjoyed!


Ada is big into climbing on things


This is what Scott looked like once Ada got to him


Loving her dig in the sand




Loving this time together.
Scott and I should have put some suncreen on.

Love this baby
Once we got food and to the beach we had a great time. Our half day trip turned into a full day, but it was worth it. I won't even get into the drive home, though. It was long and that is all I need to say.
If I asked Scott he would probably say he would not need to go again (probably because I complained a lot), but I totally would. Just not on a beautiful Saturday morning!







7 comments:

Cynthia Lovell said...

Love IT!!! Ada looks so CUTE in her little outfit with her cute little chubby legs!!! Very Fun!!! Looks like a very fun day!!!

Amy Lovell said...

Sounds like a major headache to me. I'm sure I would have been complaining, too, and John would have wanted to scream. I'm glad you guys had fun though.

Lovell Family said...

This post confirms why I don't drive any farther than 30 minutes when I've got Saige in the car. As much as I'm looking forward to coming out to CA this summer....thinking about the drive is torture!....which reminds me that I need to sign up for a credit card to get a free flight! :)

Emily said...

Just forget about the drive and look at THOSE PICTURES! They are amazing, and you are there in February! It's worth the drive and the parking!!! Trust me, our foot of snow compared to that? I'd take the drive any day.

But my kids hate long drives too.

Vivian said...

I'm with Emily. After all the rain, mud, moss growing on everything here, that beautiful water and sand look fabulous.

Jaynan said...

but isn't that beach soooo gorgeous?! That's the one we went to when we visited (we had never been to that one before), and I think it might be one of my favorites. It's a toss up between Siesta and Fort De Soto. There is something to be said for close access though..... I think we usually ended up going to Indian Rocks cuz it took us ten minutes.

Cynthia Lovell said...

I just LOVE that picture of Ada with her little pail and shovel and her little grin. I just keep looking at it everyday, in fact if you wanted to make me a copy of it, 5x7 cropped, I would display it in an obvious place!!!