Kissimmee - Tallahassee

Kissimmee - Tallahassee

2/3 - 2/9/13

Oh, Super Bowl. We were happily included in a Super Bowl Party with a Couch Surfer, a few of his friends and 3 young men from the German part of Switzerland. We had a nice BBQ, and watched the, in our opinion, dismal game.

Super Bowl at Tom's House

Had Mojo Chicken, Steak, Cesar Salad,

Baked Potatoes, Apple Cake with Ice Cream

Fun time with good folks



Monday, over to Orlando VA and spent several hours waiting for John's blood work to be done and for him to see the doctor to prescribe his coudamin. That done, we stopped at Logan's Roadhouse for a delicious lunch. We must be seniors for sure now as we each brought half of our food home since we got full. I remember the days when I could polish off a full meal and be looking for more.

Got up late on Tuesday and drove down to Winter Park to get our car key we had ordered. It is one of those special and expensive electronic keys and we had waited two weeks for it. We lost our spare some place in the beginning of our trip and always worried we'd lock our only key in the trunk. We then head to lunch and went to a cool Irish Pub downtown Orlando. On the way back we went to an excellent Mexican bakery with a Latin flair. We bought several pastries to take home. Went to Red Box to get our reserved movie “A Dolphin's Tale”. Back to our place, went to the pool for awhile and then watched our movie – well I watched it. John went in bedroom and watched something else. Sweet movie.

Laid around on Wednesday, went to pool/hot tub, played on computer, TV. Are we getting lazy?

Thursday, was supposed to go swim with the dolphins and manatees, but as we were heading for the coast on the freeway, we got a call saying trip was canceled because they were having a marine inspection of their boat. Will have to reschedule.

Up early on Friday to drive to Tallahassee, about a 4 hour drive. Drive went fine and it was interesting to see this area of Florida. It looks like anything but Florida. Our hotel was pretty awful (right at college and I accidentally got a smoking room, yuck). Arrived about 2:00 p.m. and gave Maria a call.

I went for a walk to see the campus which is right next door to hotel. There was the Claude Pepper Library and museum right around the corner so I went in and spent over an hour learning about this fascinating man. He served Florida for over 40 years. He was instrumental working for civil rights, Social Security, minimum wage and so many other areas. I was very impressed with his record and the caring man that he was.

 

He was a good politician

who helped the common man



Back to the room and Maria had just finished her audition. She came over to our room and we visited about FSU, audition. She felt it went well, is hopeful since this is her first choice for a school and she will find out on Monday if she made it. We then went for dinner at Andrew's Capitol Grill and Bar, a place that has been there for 20 something years. It is right by state capital and state buildings so lots of politicians eat there.

 

Maria Gubbels - hours after her

audition at FSU

Then Maria had to go to a staff recital to listen to one of the people who had interviewed her sing. It was important for her to make an appearance and after to go say hi. We picked her up after the concert and went for a drink. Went to Tomahawk Sports Bar close by. Walked in and it was so loud it was unreal – only one guy and a guitar, how could that be so loud. We sat as far away from him as possible and had to just about yell. A guy Maria had met, also a singer who had auditioned, came and had one drink with us. The special was berry shots, so I had two of those, and 2 + 2, they were so good. Maria had a couple, John was good and had one drink. We did have a fun time.

 

Happy Group Celebrating Maria's Audition

We loved our Berry Shots



Got up early and took Maria for breakfast. Tallahassee isn't a strong cool breakfast place so we drove around and found Denny's on campus. It says on the door, late night, but I guess they are not early morning because they were not open and didn't open until 10:30 – too late for us since we had to take Maria to the airport. So drove down main street and found a place. Discovered it had just opened day before and they obviously were not ready to open. It was a hysterical farce in service, coffee, the bill, but the food, albeit wrong orders, was good. We got up to get bill (which was wrong) and I spent a few minutes telling this family (who could barely speak English) what their problems were and that if they didn't get it together they would be out of business very fast. I did all this in a nice way. The oldest man there was even taking notes. Maria gave them a few suggestions. They were sweet, but innocent and their business will definitely fold if they don't get some good service in there. If I lived there I would actually go help them get their business up and running and Maria said she would too. They were very sweet and I wish them luck.

Got Maria to the airport on exact time needed, had some hugs and off she went. She is lucky she is going to Atlanta, then Toronto and not to NY or Boston. She would have been trapped. Her friend was going to NY and he had to stay another night (and probably another night) because his plane was canceled due to the blizzard.

John and I drove downtown to see the Old Capitol Museum and the new Capitol. It was Sunday so the new one was closed and we didn't have the energy to go into old museum. When they built the new Capitol they were going to tear down the old one and thank goodness someone with a brain said no and they got a group together and saved it. The new is ugly, cold build in the 1970's. The old one is lovely and looks like a capital. I'm so glad the old building was saved.

 

1972 New Capitol

 

Old Capitol 1845

Thank goodness it is still here

(see monster behind it)



Driving back to Kissimmee (we had another night booked in Tallahassee, but just could not stand that room and the smell), we stopped at the Suwanee River State Park. Some of you may remember the song Suwanee. I just had to stop and see the place. It was neat with a little history of the civil war and the slow, slow rivers. They used to have steam paddle wheelers on that river so there is a rich history there.

 

 

Calm, barely moving

Peaceful



Got home about 6:30, unloaded car and watched our Suze Orman show as we do every Saturday. Ate a little dinner and then off to bed. So glad we drove up to see Maria. We got to know her so much better and she's like a second daughter. I'm keeping my fingers crossed for her acceptance at FSU, but I feel very confident she will get in.

Until next week..................

I had to look up two words online Webster – accidentally and cancelled. Two acceptable spellings which is weird. Should be one. Must be like new math.