In 2023 my dad decided to visit us and take a road trip for spring break. We decided to take him all the way up to South Carolina for a couple days before returning and going to Universal for two days. We had season passes at this point and got him tickets for both parks for Christmas.
The first day after we picked him up from the airport we tried to go to Kelly Park, but they were already at capacity. That's when we decided to make the drive up to Ocala and go to Juniper Springs. I do like Juniper Springs better, as it is a lot quieter than Kelly Park. The only downside is it cost a more than 10X as much to go to Juniper Springs. We only stayed for a couple hours, and my dad didn't go in the water past his legs.
That night having some mojitos before we started our road trip the next morning.
Our first stop was St. Augustine. It was a Sunday so we decided to go to the distillery and get spiritual. They gave us free shots in these little cups that looked like the sacrament cups we had at church.
Next we walked over to Flagler College.
Followed by the old church. For some reason I don't think we made it to the fort. Probably because we had a long drive that afternoon.
The next morning we started our day out by going to the Slave Mart Museum. It's pretty wild seeing how little value one person can put on another person's life just because of their DNA.
The same morning we went over to Fort Sumter. I have been wanting to go ever since the last time I was in Charleston and my dad really likes Civil War history. The trip was kinda meh. You pay a lot of money for the ferry ride over there and you only get an hour on the island. If you do the guided tour you have no time for anything else. The fort is cool but it felt really rushed.
The Yorktown from our ferry ride.
I don't remember where this was but somewhere downtown walking back to the parking lot.
We walked the old cemetery and found Calhoun's tombstone. Calhoun was a racist asshat. Fun fact I learned when exiting the Mormon church, Joseph Smith wrote Calhoun a letter dropping the N word.
One of those overpriced signs from China?
Next up on our stop was the USS Yorktown. We had already taken the kids on battleships but never a carrier until now. I believe this is one of only 3 carrier museums in the country.
My favorite WWII airplane. The F4U Corsair.
Out on the flight deck. It was a little chilly.
We were a little rushed on this trip as well. Natalie and Adri didn't want to go below deck to the boiler room because of the fumes but there was a lot of cool stuff down there.
Our next stop was Boone Hall Plantation. The last time I was in Charleston I went to Pinckeny, which has the original house from hundreds of years ago. The Boone Hall Plantation house is not original but has been in a lot of movies. The only structures there that are original from the slave days were the slave quarters and I believe the smoke house.
This is the smokehouse.
Slave quarters.
Facts
That is quite an impressive driveway.
More southern food. The collard greens were so good. I always thought collards looked weird but I finally decided to try them on this trip and loved them. Now I make them at home and I think I do a pretty awesome job at it too.
On the way back we made a quick stop at the railroad museum for Dean. I thought there would be more to see but I think we plowed through it in under an hour.
A cool thing about Savannah is they still use the old gas lamps.
Once we got back to Florida it was time for two days at Universal. The first day we did Universal Florida.
There we are after getting cuts to the front of the line.
Margaritaville. Where the only good thing is the margaritas.
The next day we went to Islands of Adventure. I kept all the secrets of Hagrid's from my dad so he could have the full experience. That is by far the best ride of both parks.
Jurassic Park.
The Simpsons.
The barge. This has to be the best raft I've been on at any park.
Finally, our last stop before my dad went home was to see my cousin Kurtis. Kurtis is my mom's first cousin that I only met after moving to Clermont. We have been friends on Facebook for years but never met until we moved to the same city as him.
Of course we had to find some southern food and have some libation.
Our last stop on the way back to Florida was in Savannah, Georgia. This is Cathedral of St. John the Baptist.
Exodus 20:4 - Thou shalt not make unto thee a graven image, nor the likeness of any form that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth.
We were standing in line for the Jimmy Fallon ride and the guy working there really liked my shirt. He said hey follow me. Some other people tried to follow and he said "No, not you, just these guys". Then after they walked away he mumbled "You aren't wearing DeSantis shirts". He had another employee take us up the elevator to the front of the line and let us right on the ride. The line at that time was about an hour long.
The Simpsons.
No comments:
Post a Comment