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Somewhere warm

Wednesday, April 10, 2013

Mom and I are always scheming on ways to take vacations to warm places during the winter months. The last time we did this was two years ago when we took the kids to Florida. Lucy was about six months old back then and couldn't really appreciate the beach, pool and hanging out with family, so earlier this winter we decided to take a trip back down to the Sunshine State. When we started researching the price of flying we were shocked at how un-budget-friendly the prices were. We both hesitated to make the suggestion, but wouldn't driving be significantly less expensive and maybe - just maybe a little bit adventurous?! Soon we had Dad and Mike on board and began crafting our plans to travel the almost 3,000 round trip miles by car. We reserved a rental home with three bedrooms and two bathrooms close to where my Uncle Mark and Aunt Debbie live in St. Pete Beach and we secured a mini-van rental as our vehicle. The plan was set, shorts were purchased and sandals were dragged out from the back of the closet, but soon a wrench was thrown into the works. Mike has been working with some overseas customers at work lately and the company asked him to travel over to Israel for three weeks, due to depart April 1st. We were going to be leaving for Florida at the start of Benjamin's spring break on March 29th. Sadly, Mike wasn't going to be able to accompany us on our adventurous trip, but he was about to go on his own exciting adventure as well. So on the 29th we picked up the rental van, packed up the trunk, said goodbye to Daddy and headed out onto the open road. Our route would take us through eastern Iowa and Missouri, southern Illinois, the western chunk of Kentucky, straight through the middle of Tennessee and Georgia and down through east central Florida.

Even though we encountered our share of dirty bathrooms, people and fast food joints along the road, the ride down was very uneventful and we arrived at our St. Pete Beach rental at about 10:30 pm Saturday night - 25.5 hours from departure time. Sunday morning was Easter and the kids were excited to see if the Easter Bunny would leave them anything so far from home. Thankfully he was able to get their "baskets" to them in some great hiding places in our home.

Lucy was eager to play with her new bubble wand, so we went into the front yard in our pajamas and enjoyed the wonderfully warm temperature.

Later that afternoon we drove out to Clearwater to pick up Great Grandma Murphy for our Easter celebration at Uncle Mark and Aunt Debbie's house. And there for the first time ever - we were able to SWIM outside on Easter day!

The next day we staked ourselves out at a cabana on St. Pete Beach with all of our beach toys and water floats. The water was a bit too chilly for more than standing knee deep in it, but that didn't stop Benjamin from playing in the waves. The rest of us helped Lucy build sandcastles and worked on our tans - HA!

In the interest of not making one big huge blog post of vacation photos and stories, I'll stop there, but there is much more to come!

http://myfamilieschmitt.blogspot.com/

NYC

Monday, November 14, 2011

It hardly seems possible that our New York trip that we've been planning for MONTHS is now over. The story begins with three years of an unsuccessful attempt to break through the NYC Marathon lottery system followed by automatic entry for Mike. Then I won two Delta ticket vouchers in a Travel Horror Story contest in which I shared my idiotic and stressful passport misplacement on a flight from the US to London for Mike's 30th birthday. On Friday, November 4th we finally boarded our plane with those free tickets and Mike's bag of running gear for his first running in the ING New York City Marathon. We arrived in New York in the afternoon, were picked up by our airport shuttle where we met an impressive guy who handles media and course planning for the marathon and were dropped off at our home for the next five nights. We had an amazing night of sushi and meeting new friends. The next morning we found our way to the marathon expo, which was not unlike every other single marathon expo we've ever been to. We picked up Mike's bib number, packet, loads of freebies and then headed out to explore Manhattan.

We checked out Rockefeller Center and the ice rink.

And we fought the crowds at Times Square. The next morning Mike was to meet up with some friends to take the subway train to the Staten Island Ferry and the start line of the race. Unfortunately for us it was the daylight savings switch over that morning. Our hotel being the cheapy place it is did not provide an alarm clock in our room, so we attempted to set our cell phones for his early morning wakeup call of 4:30am. Neither cell phone's alarm went off and we were instead awakened by our friend Renee calling on the hotel room's phone. She asked if Mike was on his way down and I said no. She informed me that it was 5:05am (five minutes AFTER he was supposed to meet up with them in the lobby to catch the ferry at 5:45am). We both FREAKED out. Thankfully Mike has a pre-race night ritual of putting his race number on his shirt and setting out everything he needs in preparation for his departure the next morning, so he gathered everything up and RAN out the door as quickly as he could. He RAN to the subway train watching the time tick away and RAN to the ferry dock JUST in time to catch the 5:45am boat! He made it, under great stress and much hurrying. Phew!

Male marathon leaders at mile 7 in Brooklyn

Later that morning - MUCH later, thankfully. I set out via subway and foot to Brooklyn, right around the mile 7 marker. The crowds were thick, but not too crazy and I found a nice little spot on the shady side of the street (brrr). I watched in amazement as the lead men ran by and waited for a long time straining to try to catch a glimpse of Mike. I had my camera at the ready and even took a few practice shots, but as these things usually go, suddenly he showed up RIGHT in front of me. I never got my shot of him and wondered if he had even seen me, but I figured that I better move onto my next spectating spot, which was supposed to be around mile 17.

The subway cars on the track that runs along the race course through the Upper East Side of Manhattan were filled beyond capacity. It was amazing to watch as people desperate to get on shoved themselves as hard as they could into the other people already on the train. I decided that this kind of fight was not for me, so I bounded up to street level and tried to get my bearings. I was just south of Central Park and about a block or two east of where I had heard would be the busiest spectating spot of the race - mile 16/25. I had wasted too much time trying to wait for an empty spot on the train, so I knew I had missed Mike at mile 16 and there was no way I would beat him to mile 17. I decided to cut my losses and head to somewhere close to mile 25. I walked toward the park, jumped over a row of benches and a fence to get to the race course and found myself a tiny spot under a tree. I knew my photos would be horrible, but in this spot I could at least possibly see Mike early enough to get the camera ready. When I got settled I watched as the sub-3 hour marathoners went by and waited. And waited. Thankfully my Mom was giving me updates on his time and she told me that he must have had a rough mile around 23 because he was running about a 10 minute per mile pace (about 2-3 minutes slower than normal). I was so happy to finally see him and to see that he was still smiling. I did the best I could do to try to get a photo of him through the tree branches, but most importantly was the fact that he had seen ME! He finished the race in 3 hours, 35 minutes and 48 seconds. It was a bit longer than he was hoping for, but he really did not anticipate how difficult the course is. I think most people would be surprised at how hilly NYC is and also at how high up some of the bridges on the course are (five bridges). If you ask Mike how the race went, he'd say "It was epic. I'm glad I did it. But I don't feel like I ever need to do this one again!" We relaxed a bit after the race, but then we had more cheering to do. We found a gastropub that was showing the Packers game and we were happy to watch them in the EIGHTH straight win for this season! A great way to top off an "epic" day!!

The next day we walked down to the race finish line and snapped some photos of good 'old Fred Lebow, the man who created the NYC Marathon.

Mike at the finish line, albeit the day after the marathon.

Chinatown and Little Italy

Stretching out those legs.

We stopped by lots of iconic scenes around New York City.

I signed up on the show's website for tickets MONTHS before we arrived in New York and the first night we were in town they called and told us we won tickets to a taping of the Late Show with David Letterman. It was such a fun experience. We saw Robert Pattinson from the Twilight movies, photographer Annie Lebowitz and musicians Graham Nash and David Crosby. Here's a link to the episode we were at. We were sitting on the band side of the stage, about 5 rows up.

We also caught a glimpse of Mario Lopez taping Extra!

It was a great, "epic" trip and confirmed our love for the Big Apple!

http://myfamilieschmitt.blogspot.com/

Colorado Rocky Mountain High - part 2

Monday, July 25, 2011

For the second part of our trip, we drove down to the Colorado Springs area to a cottage we had rented in Manitou Springs. We stayed at the Town N' Country Cottages where we had a two room cottage that was just perfect for our needs. Lucy and Benjamin stayed in the living room and we had a bedroom all to ourselves. We swam in the pool and Benjamin loved the little playground they had.

We did a bunch of the typical touristy stuff while in this area like hanging out at the Manitou Springs Penny Arcade, driving up Pikes Peak and visiting the Royal Gorge and Garden of the Gods. Here are some highlights:

Minnesota representing at the Royal Gorge

Benjamin at Balanced Rock - Garden of the Gods

We also took a slightly adventurous driving route from the Royal Gorge to Cripple Creek called The Shelf Road. It is a gravel road that is just what its called, a shelf along the side of some mountains. The drop-off down to the bottom of the canyon is quite close to where you drive and the scenery is stunning. Mike and I always seem to get ourselves into adventurous driving when we travel (Saddle Road in Hawaii, Ring of Kerry on St. Patrick's Day in Ireland, etc etc), so we jumped at the chance to try this route out. We had a blast driving it! We stopped to take a few photos of the scenery and I even shot a video of how crazy the road was (to be posted at a later date).

We had such a wonderful trip and created so many family memories. We all look forward to our return to Colorado very much. It was a sad time leaving those amazing mountains behind for the corn fields of our midwest.

http://myfamilieschmitt.blogspot.com/

Colorado Rocky Mountain High

Familie Schmitt has made yet another successful trek across the plains to Colorado. This was our third trip out west to the mountains. The first time was all the way back in 2004, right before we found out we were expecting Benjamin. The second trip was in 2009 when he was just 4 years old (read about that one here). And now we did the trip as a family of four and it was so wonderful.

As I alluded to in previous blog posts, we took a chance by attempting our drive out there over night. We left Tuesday at 9pm and arrived Wednesday at about 11am, Mountain Time. I took the first seven or so hours of the trip and when I couldn't keep my eyes open any longer, passed the wheel over to Mike just before 4am. Mike brought us all the way to Boulder. We were both surprised at how easy and painless the drive seemed. There, of course, we some moments when each of us were driving and we were sick of being on the road, but honestly it wasn't too bad! Both kids slept like champs and after we stopped in North Platte, Nebraska (NOT recommended) for a very early breakfast (6:00am), those of us not driving even got in a little extra shut eye. We made Pearl Street in Boulder our first stop and after strolling around the shops and playing in a fountain to cool off, we ducked into a local restaurant for lunch.

Next we took a drive up Boulder Canyon. Before we left, I had rented a new lens for my camera from BorrowLenses.com - a Tokina 11-16mm and I was eager to try it out on some mountains. The lens was great for capturing wide spaces, but the quality of photos wasn't as good as I get from my go-to lens, the "Nifty Fifty." I was happy to have it along though and it proved useful in large areas like Pikes Peak and the Garden of the Gods later in the trip.

For the first two nights we stayed in the Hyatt Summerfield Suites in Broomfield, which is directly between Boulder and Denver. It was a great location for exploring that area and the hotel itself was wonderful. They had a nightly welcome reception with appetizers that largely served as our dinner for those first two evenings and a great breakfast every morning as well. Our room was a suite with a partial room divider between the living room area and bedroom area. We also had a full kitchen, which served as Lucy's bedroom.

(I am trying to photoshop that blade of grass off of Benjamin's face...)

Before we left home we bought some tickets to a Colorado Rockies baseball game. They played the Milwaukee Brewers. We cheered for the Rockies and they beat the pants off of the Brewers! It looked like it was going to storm during the entire game, but it must just have been some kind of crazy mountain weather effect, because it never rained - thank goodness.

http://myfamilieschmitt.blogspot.com/

Florida: Day 4-7

Saturday, April 09, 2011

Over the weekend we were able to travel to St. Pete Beach to spend some time with my Uncle Mark and Aunt Debbie. Unfortunately, Aunt Debbie has a sore back and was unable to join us outside of their home, but we did our best to keep her company and she even helped out by feeding Lucy.

The rest of us enjoyed their pool, which is mere steps from their back door. Benjamin had a blast shooting his Great Uncle Mark with squirt guns and swimming with the pool noodles.

In the evening Uncle Mark gave us a tour of his boat slip that is across the street from their house. While we were checking things out we got a glimpse of two dolphins swimming together just a few feet from where we were standing. I wasn't able to get any pictures of them surfacing, but Great Grandma took some time to point them out to Benjamin:

We walked over to the beach side of things and on our way we stopped to make friends with this fella:

At the beach we played on the shore

and watched a beautiful sunset

The next day we returned to St. Pete Beach and dragged what seemed like a million bags to a cabana for shade. Lucy stayed under the shade with Uncle Mark while we all took to the water and Benjamin and Great Grandma made sand castles.

For our last day we had planned to visit Clearwater Beach, but during our lunch at Frenchy's Rockaway Grill, we realized that Lucy was not feeling well and maybe the beach wasn't the best idea. So we went back to Great Grandma's where Lucy and I hug out inside and everyone else went to the pool. Up until this day Benjamin was too afraid to swim around in the water by himself, but with the help of a friendly lady who lives in Grandma's complex, he finally took the chance and began to swim unassisted (although he was still wearing his water wings). Grandma Chris caught it on video:

The day we left Florida was rainy and cold, so we were happy that we had a bunch of very nice days of sunshine while we were there. We had an awesome trip and now Benjamin has a new place he'd like to live when he grows up! Hopefully Uncle Mark has an extra room... ;-)