Happy Holidays III

Continuing from the previous post

Busch Gardens was quite hectic on Wednesday – we left home around 11 in the morning and returned only around 7:30 and it was quite hot and tiring in the park; so we decided to relax around the house the next day and not plan any major outings. After a leisurely breakfast (my staple diet of bagel and cream cheese) we set out for some shopping at Toys R Us on Thursday morning. I was keen on doing some toy shopping for S but was quite surprised at the limited range of toys for children below 3 years of age- if you take out the dolls and the stuffed animals there is actually pretty less and most of the toys are for 3+. Anyway we managed to pick up some animal figurines, a set of musical instruments and some DVDs for S. After a long siesta in the afternoon, we spent the evening relaxing in the pool at my brother’s house. Both the boys were playing in the pool and S enjoyed floating around watching the hubby and her younger cousin having a water fight and me and the other boy racing around the pool. We watched Frost/Nixon on the DVD at night- interesting movie, amazing acting by the two main guys.

Friday was another relaxed day. We went to the local mall to do some window shopping, I got some really cute clips and shoes for S and a dress for myself and we generally browsed through the shops. Lunch was at the food court- managed to gulp down some tacos while feeding S. One thing about the US holiday was that S started eating her lunch and dinner with us- since we were out a lot the only time we got to sit down and give her her meals was when we sat down for ours. So I got used to feeding her while eating myself- otherwise back home her meal is a long process by itself. But I continued to give S her special baby meals- oatmeal, millet porridge, mashed rice and lentils and didn’t venture to share our food with her (she still has only 4 teeth so chewing stuff is generally difficult for her). However she did develop a strong liking for salt and vinegar chips (my favourite) and the typical sight would be S sitting on my lap and putting her hand into the chips packet, helping herself to the biggest piece and stuffing the full chip into her mouth! – was probably worried and rightly so that the hubby and I would quickly snatch it out of her hand. After another siesta in the afternoon- love this about holidays- you get to sleep in while others in your office and working and while the people whose house you are staying in are out working; we spent the evening in the pool with all the kids playing around together. My aunt and uncle came over to my brothers place for dinner- quite nice of them to drive down (their place is about an hour away) to see S. My cousin (their son) also recently had a baby so much of the time was spent exchanging baby stories. It seems my cousin left their 9 month baby with my aunt for a week while they holidayed in Peru –quite chilled out right? Its giving me ideas as well!!!

Saturday we set out for West Palm Beach. My brother had booked us 2 suites at the Marriot on the beach there and it was lovely. The journey took about 5 hours- it’s a 4 hour drive and we stopped an hour for lunch. Lunch was at this strange place called Dude Ranch (we couldn’t find anything else on the way since most of the highway was in fact a 2 lane road through large fields and not a highway with the usual service stops with restaurant) which claimed to be the largest horse ranch in the country. There was horse riding, boating, fishing, camping in this place, but the only restaurant was a smoke house and we were quite skeptical about getting any veg food there. Turned out to have a decent menu with even a veg burger- the patty is made from soya which is quite yuck, but deinfetly an improvement from the veg burgers in Macdonalds which consists of a burger bun with vegetables in it! We reached the resort around 4:30 p.m and immediately headed out for the beach. The water was amazing- slightly cold to begin with but with the hot sun it become comfortable within minutes. The hubby took S slightly into the water but she was not comfortable going beyond ankle height and started shivering. So she stayed back with my sis-in-law while the hubby and I swam in the water- rather I swam with the waves and the hubby stood there (since he doesn’t know to swim and is too scared to try in the water). My nephews also enjoyed the waves and we spent a good hour playing the water, bouncing with the waves, getting carried southwards and then trudging back to our starting point. Then we hit the hotel pool which S thoroughly enjoyed since it was a heated pool. We had carried her inflatable floater with us and she had picked up some shells at the beach which she clung onto even in the swimming pool so most of the time went in S dropping the shells in the water and me diving to get them back for her! After her dinner back at the hotel room, we went down for our cocktails and dinner (and I finally got to wear the dress I had bought). S was completely excited and kept running around the place, smiling at strangers, playing hide and seek with me and running to see what her cousins were upto (they were playing pool and chess). My bro and sis-in-law managed to sneak in a moonlight walk after their kids were asleep- we ‘baby sat’ them which meant I watched TV while the boys, the hubby and S slept since you are not allowed to leave kids alone until they turn 13 in the US!

Sunday morning we got up early and hit the beach. It was too cold to swim in the water but we sat on the lounge chairs and took in the early morning waves hitting the shore. It was beautiful-the sea was blue, the beach was empty and the sun was not too hot. We then swam for sometime in the pool and then got ready to head back home. On the way we stopped at a Jungle Safari where we drove through a safari park and saw lions, giraffes, zebras, wildebeests, Indian buffaloes, ostrich, deer, zebra, rhinos and other animals. S was most excited to see some balls which were near the lions and the rhino enclosure and kept pointing at them and saying Babu (which is her word for ball). Lunch was at a nice restaurant called Max and Erme which makes burgers but has more variety than your standard veg soya patty. They also had these amazing freshly baked cookies which literally melt in your mouth. My hubby and bro ate up most of them to my nepehew’s disappointment who tried his best to guard the box (they ate them up while he slept in the car, and was only mollified when promised a million aeroplanes full of cookies with the pilots also made of cookies!). We reached back home around 8 pm and the rest of the night was spent packing (our last day at Tampa, very sad), watching “Wednesday” a Hindi film we had got for my bro and generally chilling with the boys. My sis-in-law managed to cook up an amazing dinner within an hour – she is a great cook who manages to do it all effortlessly which makes me feel quite inadequate since I am pretty pathetic cook and hardly step into the kitchen!
Next time I want to spend at least 2 weeks in Tampa as it is such a relaxing, comfortable place with so many things to do. I wish we become as good hosts as my bro and sis-in-law!!