Florida

We just got back yesterday from a 9 day trip to Florida. Our last vacation was almost 2 years ago, and we just stayed at home then. It was a ton of fun. We were able to stay free at 3 of the Marriott Timeshares in Florida! We stayed at Grande Vista in Orlando for 3 days, went down to Fort Lauderdale and stayed at BeachPlace Towers for 3 days and then back up to Orlando and Harbour Lake for 3 days. Since we stayed in 2 bedroom units, we were able to take my whole family.

Asher did surprisingly well on the plane. We also dosed him up with Benadryl, which helped.

Here is Nick and our nephew, Noah.

Asher playing around

The best service we EVER had at a restaurant, was at the Hooters in Fort Lauderdale. She was so sweet, catered to Asher the whole time, gave us drinks to take with us and when he wanted her to hold him, she danced with him!

Nick was totally awesome, and drove 2 hours from Fort Lauderdale to get to the Fruit and Spice Park. I'd read about it in The Fruit Hunters, and it was absolutely amazing! Totally worth the drive, and I got to taste and see some amazing things!


This is a Blackberry Jam Fruit

These are called praying hands and they grow off of one of the varieties of banana trees that they have.

This is a Cherry of the Rio Grande, which grows in Brazil.

I don't even know what this is, but it was a pod that was hanging from one of the awnings at the park.

This is Jaboticaba, the fruit only grows on the trunk, not the branches.

I ate one of these, it's a Surinam Cherry. It was very seedy and not very good.

This is a Fried Egg Plant.

A Breadfruit from the Archipelago.

Nick and Asher on the Fort Lauderdale Beach.

We didn't go to many parks, but we did end up going to Blizzard Beach. It was a whole days worth of fun!!

We went to a miniature Golf Course in Orlando called Pirate's Cove. Everything was pirate themed, and they even gave Asher a little pirate goody bag at the end.

They also gave him a little plastic putter to walk around with.

Fishbones, was one of the Florida Specific restaurants that we went to. There was a fish tank right next to our table, that's what Asher's looking at. We also tried Bahama Breeze, and Cici's Pizza and Hooters which we'd never eaten at before. Cici's sucked, Hooters was really yummy.

We had an amazing time, but it's nice to be back home. This is the last big vacation we'll be taking in awhile so I'm glad that it was a good one!

The Fruit Hunters

I started the Fruit Hunters with some trepidation. It sounded like an interesting book, but the cover looked old fashioned and I was prepared to find a Farmers Almanac, rather than an exciting look into exotic fruit.

I completely misjudged The Fruit Hunters. While there were a few chapters that weren't as interesting as most of the chapters, it made me want to journey to far away locations to sample cloud berries. And fruit that proves that God has a sense of humor, the coco de mer is a fruit that looks like a woman's butt, but whose seeds look like fully erect penises.

There were so many interesting facts about fruit that I didn't know about, or even thought about, or even realized that I should have thought about.

When we go to Florida in April, I'm going to go the Fruit and Spice Park south of Fort Lauderdale, where you can sample more than 100 varieties or mangoes and other fruit from right off the trees.

If you're looking for an interesting read, about all things fruit including fruitarians, the "Fruit Detective" and fruit that tastes like vanilla ice cream; then this is the book for you.