Amelia Island...

I originally questioned our decision to go anywhere tropical during the middle of the summer, but it turned out to be a perfect choice. Amelia Island is a beautiful area, with magnolia trees, spanish moss, flowers, palm trees, and LOTS of biting buggies.

My Mom, sister, and I all arrived Sunday evening, within an hour of each other, thanks to careful planning on the part of our dedicated travel agent (me). We grabbed a car and headed for the Island. Not knowing what to expect, I kept apologizing in advance for our hotel room. I'd read some internet reviews that said the place was in serious need of an update. I stressed the importance of being on a beach rather than having nice digs. Additionally, the agent that I spoke with said they are NOT a "chi-chi" resort, with manicured gardens. That made me a little nervous. Well, alot nervous. Thankfully, I couldn't have been more wrong. Pulling into the resort, I understood what she meant by not being a manicured property. Instead of cute uniform flowerbeds, there was lush vegetation and ponds everywhere. It was like going to a private retreat instead of a fancy resort. We were impressed with the registration office, and was even more impressed with the 2 mile drive to our building that took us through the (rain)forest past fancy homes and resorts.

So the resort was awesome, next hurdle was the condo. I chose the 2 bedroom 2 bath condo on the ocean, but wasn't sure what that would mean. I was picturing linoleum flooring, avocado green appliances, and formica tops with glitter swirls. I was hoping for a TV, knew internet access and laundry facilities were out of the question. THANK THE GOOD LORD that I was wrong again. Instead we had a huge unit with THREE flat screen LCD tvs, DVD players, internet access, IN UNIT laundry, large kitchen with granite tops and new appliances, ceramic tile, updated baths, leather furniture, glass topped dining room table, updated fixutres....I sound like I'm writing a brochure for a house. And a lovely view of the ocean.

After getting settled, we headed to the store and dropped $140 on groceries. We did the math and figured out that it still came out less than if we were to eat out 3 meals a day plus snacks. Now we were fully prepared to live life as normal...cereal for breakfasts, salad for lunch, fruit for snacks. And of course goldfish crackers and some highly addicting Mega M&Ms. Oh wow those were good. And lots of Diet Coke. No fear of falling of the healthy eating wagon here. We finished off the evening on our balcony, listening to the waves roll in.

Monday morning started for me at 8am, with a phone call from my kids. ACK! Even 1000 miles away, they still won't let me sleep in. After lazing around and eating breakfast, Bethany decided it was time for Boot Camp to begin. The plan was for us to hit the trail and for me to jog (HA) and her to rollerblade 1.5 miles to the bike rental shop, get ME a bike, and then continue another 1.5 miles to the fitness center, where she would kick my butt for an hour and we'd head home. Sounded foolproof, right? Well for some reason Bethany couldn't rollerblade, and it was WAY to sticky to jog. She moved along the trail by lurching from tree to fence to ME, or whatever could stop her progress. With a burst of confidence she decided to coast straight down a hill with no support branches to help her along. Fine, until she hit a patch of sand at the bottom, fell hard, and broke her tailbone. She says it's not broken, I'm convinced it is...she can't even sit on it! Here's the scene of the crime:

At that, we decided to switch roller blades and she would walk. Or rather, hobble. Now I'd never been on roller blades before, and my progress even more pathetic. At one point I was racing down a hill screaming at people to get out of my way. One lady jumped off the trail, looked at my t-shirt and said "you're a pilot? I'll NEVER fly with you!" as I crashed feet first into a palm tree. Eventually we made it to the bike shop (it took us an hour!), I was covered with bug bites, we got TWO bikes (the roller blading days were over) and made it to the gym. Ahhh. That afternoon we hit the beach, did some sightseeing, and had a nice peaceful fresh seafood dinner.

Day 3 started without a phone call from my kids, I knew my mother-in-law wouldn't allow it, so we slept in, rode our bikes to the fitness center, and then decided to go to St Augustine to parasail. What a great time! We chose the 1400 foot package with two free falls and two dips. The dips were axed by shark-fearing Bethany, but my Mom and I were at least able to come close enough to get our toes wet.

After parasailing we went to a well-recommended restaurant, spent $$ on cheap junk, and wandered the streets of St Augustine. What a cool little town. We really wanted to do the Ghost Tours, but that would mean getting back to the hotel at 1am, which was 90 mins away. Maybe next time.

The rest of the trip was uneventful but very relaxing. It was pretty much days of sleeping in, exercising, sitting on the beach, and then sight seeing and eating out. The night before we left we checked out a restaurant that came well recommended but still remained highly suspicious. It turned out that the food was great (best meal the whole time), the place was packed, and it was quite popular with the locals.

The last day we took the scenic route down to the airport and saw some neat sights. This one kinda freaked me out though:

My sis and I dropped my Mom off at the airport and drove around some more before returning for our (alleged) flights. We decided to be brave and tackle our fear of bridges by taking on this monster bridge....

Clearly we survived, however the top of the bridge was like going over the hill on the highest roller coaster....kind of fun but freaky considering the bridges in MN had just collapsed. Prior to the collapse, my Mom and sis had laughed at my fear of driving over bridges. I told them that bridges DO collapse. Unfortunately I was proven right a few days later in Minneapolis.

We made it to the airport in time to find out that everybody's flight was on time except mine, which would cause such a delay that I would miss my connection and be stranded either in Jacksonville or Memphis. I chose Jacksonville and was booked on a 6am flight the next day. I found a hotel, had a nice quiet dinner by myself, complete with a nice phone conversation, went to bed, and made it home the next day. What a trip!