On The Road from Orlando

We packed up on Sunday morning to leave Orlando — it was REALLY cold — I know, cold is relative but for FL it was COLD!! David was “bundled up” packing up the car!

From Orlando we were going to Tampa to see our nephew, John and his family (Amy, Jack and Charlotte). The drive there was very picturesque and we traveled over various bridges. When we first started across the one bridge there was a sign of a High Wind Warning on the bridge (only they call it a “skyway”!!). Me and bridges are not the best of friends so just seeing that sign started a sweat on my hands! But really the view was fantastic!!

Yes, that was a student driver in front of us!!!

John and Amy’s house is in a historic neighborhood in Tampa about 3 blocks from the water. I cannot believe I did not take any pictures of the outside of the house — it has so much character. They actually bought it from a flipper who added a lot of modern features, but then Amy used her creative strengths and added more historical aspects to fit better with the theme of the houses in the area. Being a historic residence, all outside changes need to be approved by the local historical committee, which as both Amy and John shared can be quite challenging at times. They have been working for a number of months with the committee to try to get approval on the changes they want to make to their front door. They are hoping that approval will come through soon. I did take a couple of pictures outside where they have set up a little battling cage for Jack. It was fun to get in there and swing a bat again. John was not only surprised, but I guess would say shocked to see that I could hit the ball!! Like getting on a bike again, after years of softball, the natural swings come back to you!! 🙂 (Honestly, I was disappointed in my hits!! 😦 )

Leaving their house, we did drive around the water which had a great park that was very busy, since it was a beautiful Sunday. Had to take a picture of this, since Jackie lives on Florida Ave So, I thought she would enjoy seeing Florida Ave in Tampa!!

We continue north from Tampa to Zephyrhills for our 2 night stay at this AirBNB. It was definitely very quirky — the kitchen was up a step and the bedroom was down a step, but was pretty cozy and close to the other places we planned to visit. (Although we did see a good size bug in the kitchen that I mushed before it ventured into the bedroom!!!)