Staycation Part Four: Wrapping It Up

After staying at Disney, and going to see Hamilton, our last few days of staycation were fairly low-key. On Thursday, after driving back from Jacksonville, we all went out to Top Golf for the first time in nearly two years. 

It was Calib's day off, and Peyton's top pick of things to do on staycation week, so everyone came along! 

And mom treated us all to appetizers and drinks, too. 

Obviously there were injectable donut holes. 

But we also grabbed some mac and cheese bites.. 

..and some delicious nachos. 

Everyone feasted while we golfed and had a great time. Hopefully it won't be two years before we're back! 

We took two cars down to Top Golf, Hayden was less than pleased to sit in front with Calib, but he survived just fine. 

And then we all went to Costco, like real life in person shopping trip with grandma! Check out the boys in the pillow asile. They were enjoying their first grandma trip to Costco since September 2019. 

When we got home, we had some good news in the mail. After a free Associates Degree, and a year off because of covid, and a whole disaster at the admissions office of the dual enrollment, Calib got into USF. So, he's likely headed there for the winter semester. Time to start incurring debt like the rest of us! 

Thursday night football that evening went to the Bucs vs. Eagles. I was so tired, because I had barely slept the night before, that after half time I went and tucked myself in, and this is how we watched football together (you see Asa and Calib out there in the family room, watching it on that TV). 

Friday morning it was time to drop mom off at the airport.. 

And then we made our way to Hyde Park to go to Goody Goody Burger. It's the last place we ate at, before the Pandemic hit- and the first time we had been back. We ate out on the patio, of course, and I got the banana pancake, because it's basically all I ever get there. But, pro-tip from a Goody Goody Burger Pancake Expert: immediately ask for a to-go box and cut your brunch in half. You're never going to finish it all, and if you don't get syrup on that half of your pancake, it won't get soggy and will reheat just fine. 

Asa got some really yummy buscits and gravy egg hash. 

On our way home we stopped by the Post Office to mail out the finished baby quilt.. 

And then later that evening, we ran a couple of errands. We got some pumpkins for carving and then swung by Wawa for dinner. I wanted a proper Gobbler, not that weird soggy one that showed up an hour late thanks to Uber Eats. 

Saturday was pretty low key. 

We did swing by the Native Plant Sale at Heritage Park...

And made a trip for some 'All You Can Swirl'.. 

... And iced coffee. 

I feel like the sign on Panera's door is such a sign of the times, though. Everyone is always out of everything. I hate it. 

And we swung by the Rec Center for a couple of library books and a curbside craft. (ICYMI our library is under a remodel, so they're working a pick up site out of the Rec Center). 

We also got ourselves a new kitchen gadget. We're heading into the world of dehydrating food. We have so many herbs that go to waste, we decided drying our own would be great. But, we're also excited to dry fruits and make our own jerkey. 

Sunday was great because a "cold front" finally made it's way here! 

And for a breif shining moment we got to open the back doors. 

Of course Sunday was also football- and another London Game = 9:30AM = Breakfast Tacos. 

On Monday, Asa was back to the old grind at work. He doesn't mind though, you know, that's the crazy thing about liking your job! Which meant Hayden and I were back to the old school work grind. Currently, Hayden's still working on his drivers ed, and I'm kind of envious that he can do so from home, with his Hamilton coffee mug in hand, on his headphones. I had to like... go to a classroom... after being in school in a normal classroom all day... to go to Drivers Ed. And that kind of sucks. 

We also worked on his crubside craft for the day. 

He's got a few crafts already done for the fair next August! 

Oh, and he wrote about Calib and Asa arguing about brunch burritos which I thought was hilarious (I was given instructions that I could not tell Asa about this- or post it on Facebook, but I could put it in my blog.. you know, for prosperity.) My favorite part at the end is "Source: Google Photos/Me. 

And that's it folks. All caught up. 

Staycation Part Three: HAMILTON!

I have been dying to see Hamilton in person for YEARS. Of course, last year the original Broadway cast was put on Disney+, but I still wanted to see it in person. When Hamilton came to Tampa in 2019, I tried to get tickets through the lottery system. But, no luck. I tried again when they were in Orlando. Still no luck. 

Then, of course, the pandemic. 

So, when I saw a reporter randomly tweet about Hamilton in Jacksonville, I wondered if it was easy to get tickets. I didn't have high hopes- since it was only two weeks out- but I decided to check anyway. And to my surprise, there were still quite a few tickets left. And not the ridiculously expensive ones. But, the one's way up in the balcony for just 50 bucks. So, I quickly scooped the tickets up and planned my trip to Jacksonville. 

 

The play was on Wednesday, but we decided it would be best to stay in Jacksonville on Tuesday and Wednesday night. We picked mom up from the airport on Tuesday morning, and then headed on up. We decided an Airbnb would be best. More room. A place to cool meals. So, I found a cute little house in the subburbs about 15 minutes from the theater. We arrived around dinner time. Hayden quickly made himself at home. 

It was a cute place. (Take note of the fruit snacks by the welcome sign. Calib is a bit over-protective of his fruit snacks and so Asa took some just to screw with him- and proceeded to send him pictures of his fruit snacks all over Jacksonville. There's even a picture of them at Hamilton). 

Anyway, the house had a nice big living room/dining room/kitchen combo.. 

And four bedrooms. One with a king sized bed and a bathroom for me and Asa, and one with a queen bed for mom. 

Hayden was in the third bedroom that had two twin beds, and the fourth bedroom was a cute little playroom (obviously we didn't use it- but still cute). 

It came with a washer and dryer too. 

And the garage came complete with an air hockey table.. 

...and a basketball game. 

It even had one of those nice screens so you could open the garage door to let some air in, but not be subject to bugs. Lovely. 

Hayden wasn't too thrilled with the idea of going out so soon after we got to Jacksonville, so mom, Asa and I left him and found this cute little place to get some drinks and snacks at called 'The District". It had mostly outdoor seating in a courtyard, so that was nice and covid friendly. 

We ordered a couple of drinks. 

And a bunch of appetizers... crab cake, charcuterie board, and a spinach and artichoke dip. 

Plus a bread pudding for dessert! All of it was delicious, and while we hadn't intended on being full, nobody was too interested in dinner when we got back. 

So, we just made Hayden something to eat when we got back. Check it out- he's watching Hamilton before we go watch Hamilton! 

Asa made us coffee, and mom worked on her school work. 

And then later that evening I made us some vacation charcuterie. It's not super fancy, but I worked with what I have (and yes, that's a cookie sheet- my only downfall of our airbnb would be that the kitchen wasn't all that 'fully stocked'.) 

The next morning we headed out about 35 minutes to go to the beach. 

It's been a minute - more accurately two years-- since I've laid eyes on the Atlantic. 

I mostly sat on the beach, but Asa and Hayden had a lot of fun playing in the waves. 

Mom even got out there too. 

After some playing in the waves, I discovered some seagull had left me a present on my backpack. 

Mom found some shells- but as you can see, it wasn't great shelling out there. 

And Hayden and Asa went off to jump in the dunes. 

Overall, it was a lovely trip to the beach. 

We headed up to rinse off and start the drive back in order to make it back for a zoom meeting mom had to attend. 

That was fine, because it was lunch time anyway. So, we hung out, had some lunch and watched some Rango (the airbnb was equipped with a Roku/Fire Stick and had all the streaming services). 

After the meeting and lunch, we headed back out, this time to the Jacksonville Zoo, which was just about 10 minutes away from our Airbnb. 

The zoo was nice. Every section looped around a main walkway, and it felt compact enough to see it all in an afternoon. 

Each section seemed to have it's own bird house and reptile house. So we saw a lot of those. 

There was also a lot of things out for their Halloween night time event, so we got to see those decorations. 

And of course, all the usual zoo suspects: griaffes, zebras, and elephants. 

Fun fact, this elephant was drinking water, and you could hear it splashing into his mouth from his trunk. A bonus of being there on a Wednesday afternoon, there weren't a whole lot of people around and it was super quiet. 

We also came across the giant otters, which were just having like a wrestling match. I should have recorded it. It was kind of amazing. 

And they had capybaras!  Capybara's are like one of my most favorite animal (who wouldn't love the world's largest rodent?!) Not many zoos have them, so I'm always very excited when I come across them. 

There was also a warthog, who was very much enjoying his (or her!) roll through the mud pit. 

And we spotted a baby gorilla hitching a ride. 

Before we left, we swung by to give the Sting Rays a pet. 

And then of course, we stopped by the gift shop for a magnet to add to my collection. 

After a couple hours at the zoo, we were ready to head back to the house for some dinner and coffee. 

Mom, meanwhile, took this opportunity to work on a baby quilt for my cousin and his wife who just had a baby. Yes, I packed my sewing machine just for her. Leave it to my mom to pack in EVERY. AVAILABLE. Second. 

Hayden meanwhile rested up, we had a late night ahead of us. 

Fully rested, we played a few games of airhockey before getting ready. 

Look, Hayden wore my Hamilton socks TO Hamilton! 

It was just about a 15 minute trip over to the theater. And when we arrived, we immediately spotted the Hamilton truck! So we had to take some pictures. 

Even the windows were all decked out. Check out Hayden, who also wore his 'Not Throwing Away My Shot' Hamilton shirt. 

It was a little bottle-necky when we got into the theater, and I was worried how Hayden, especially, would do around this many people. But, we packed ourselves good masks. 

And by the time we walked up the stairs and saw the stage all Hamilton-ed out, I think he was pretty confident any uncomfortability was worth it. 

That's the HAMILTON STAGE! 

Besides, we sat all the way in the back, at the top row of the balcony, all the way over to the side. So, nobody was next to him, or behind him. And, everyone in the theater was required to be masked. 

See? Behind us there was nobody! 

And now, King George is about to ask us to silence all cell phones and electronic devices to enjoy his show!!! 

At intermission, I was teary-eyed. I LOVED the first half, more than I thought I would. 

And by the end of the show, Hayden and I were both talking about wanting to go see it again as soon as we could. And for those of you who knew Asa in college, I present to you the evolution of the guy we all know and love: "Our Eliza is like Team Kelly, the original Eliza is team John. That's the difference." 

We decided some of the actors we enjoyed better than the originals. Our Peggy was better, for sure. And our King George was AMAZING. Some I loved equally as much.  I mean, I adore Daveed Diggs, but man the guy we saw knocked his roll as Thomas Jefferson out of the park. And some just didn't live up to the hype. Our George Washington just didn't have the same presence. But you guys, I loved the whole thing. Amazing. 

And, my cousin Jake told us he regretted not buying merch when he saw it, and encouraged us to get something. Mom treated us all to a bag of goodies. Of course I got a magnet, Hayden got a coffee mug, and then we all got hoodies/tshirts. 

That was it for our trip to Jacksonville. I slept terribly that night, probably still on a high from seeing Hamilton, and mom needed to be back at our house for a meeting at noon, so we were up bright and early to come back to Tampa. But, it was all worth it. SO SO fun. Highlight of 2021 for me, for sure. I'm not even mad I didn't get to go to the Embassy Tours, because I GOT TO SEE HAMILTON IN REAL LIFE!