For the first time ever the entire family went to Orlando with no intention of going to any theme parks. We also really didn't want to do all the normal freak show or water park entertainment options available to a family of 5. We started the trip off in very strange fashion.
We took I-95 which is not the normal route taken when going to Orlando. As a marketing and sales person I find the drive fascinating, making mental lists of the some of the larger named buildings that we're driving by as far North as Jupiter. It's only a little over an hour away with no traffic incidents. It's a much more stimulating drive than the normal Turnpike route. On the way we decided to call a friend of mine from High School and see if he and his wife and son were home. As always the phone rang and went to voice mail. I figured I'd hear from hear in a few days which is the usual time delay for him, very busy with a toddler and two houses separated by 120 miles or more.
Well low and behold he calls and they're actually home in Jensen Beach. I tell him wow we're literally less than 10 minutes from your house, not that I had ever been there. He then gave us directions for a pretty approach to his house. The funniest things was he says as you come down the street you'll come over a blind descent say, "Whee!". I've been living in Florida for more than 35 years and laughed at his suggestion figuring it was something he's been saying to his two year old and he couldn't help pulling us into his young family routines. I was epically wrong. The hill is one of the steepest and quickest descents in Florida. The whole car said, "Wheee!!" for a while as we shot down the hill and quickly passed his street on the way down. Later that morning my son found skateboard type device(I forget the name but it wiggles to generate momentum instead of tick tacking as you would on a skateboard. The crappy little hill my friend's house is on was enough for the boy that day although I suspect if we went back he'd put on a helmet and try the big hill. I must say just driving over it is awesome. I think the blind nature of the drop helps a lot. We had a great visit with our friends although the toddler didn't wake up(thankfully for his mom and dad) in time for us to say hello and make him generally crazy.
We had a nice visit and got back on the road driving through a very Florida inspired landscape. There were very pretty older homes, brand new homes, and completely dilapidated most likely forclosure properties side by side. Driving on this rolling hilly barrier island(?) was awesome. Made me want a motorcycle for the first time in a very long time. Most of Florida's roads don't make me long for a motorcycle, a high speed tank would be more apropos. After a bit of a detour through Jensen Beach's inner city neighborhoods we wound up back on A1A and drove past a variety of pretty homes though we couldn't see the water through the houses. Then we wound up near the air force base which forced us to back track to get to Titusville so we could eat at Dixie Crossroads. The restaurant was a little pricey but very tasty. Their specialty is seafood of all types with an emphasis on Rock Shrimp which aren't nearly as pretty as regular shrimp. They do however taste great broiled with butter. We had two nice sized platter of rock shrimp, regular shrimp, Maine lobster and large bay scallops. Everything was very good including the decadent appetizer of fried corn fritters covered in powdered sugar. I warned everyone to eat as few as possible so they would have room for dinner. We had their clam soup as well which was good but I don't think I could call it great.
We then got in the car and headed to Orlando full and relatively happy though when it comes to seafood we eat more than your average bear. We got to the hotel and unpacked. Then got snacks and movies for the next two nights. The kids decided to get their dinner in the form of fruit roll ups. I was eating perfectly ripe Georgia peaches we bought on the side of the road. Can't remember what else we ate but it was light. We crashed after watching the slowest movie of all time, Sucker Punch. When we got up we were hungry. Somehow we wound up at Shoney's. That's what happens on family trips sometimes. Bad decisions are made based on expediency. As it turned out the only issue for everyone but my wife was the lack of proper air conditioning. The food was good enough and very plentiful. Dirty rice worked for me since it was brunch time by the time we ate. Everyone gorged and we went on with our day. Dinner that night was tremendous while a lacking at the same time.
But I'll save that dinner for my next post. When it's your first rodizio it's special.
No comments:
Post a Comment