Jonathan's Road Trip

  Today's travel We woke up in Woodbridge, Virginia and after 378 miles driven this day, we completed the final 1/3 of our trip back to Simsbury, Connecticut.  As much as I loved our time in Florida and as much as I did not want to leave, this final day of travel was all about just getting home.  I think all of us in my family were just done being in the car.   Weather comparison As you can see from the weather forecast of Pompano Beach, Florida, the temperatures from where we were just a few short days ago were still beautiful, with temperatures in the 80's all next week.  And yet, the temperature in Simsbury was just 36 degrees.  Booooooooo!!! Also, a look at the weather radar shows that the entire last day of travel for us was rainy and not weather that would make us want to stop and explore along the way.  Quite honestly, this was okay for me because I was excited to see our cats. It rained the whole day My family and I LOVE to travel, but after 16 days away, it felt good t

  Saturday's travel We woke up this morning, about 1/3 of the way home, and yet today we had another 1/3 of the trip to travel - Hilton Head Island, South Carolina to Woodbridge, VA, for 553 miles. Breakfast in Hilton Head Although we had a long day in the car ahead of us, we wanted to explore a little.  We choose to do this because we've never been to Hilton Head Island before, but also because we realized that this was the last opportunity to enjoy the warmth of the southern states. We started out our day enjoying a breakfast outside on a beautiful warm morning.  Hilton Head is a very pretty South Carolina coastal town. My dad has a friend that lives nearby that has said that they have often seen alligators in the waterways near their house.  Can you imagine?!?!  Although we didn't see any real alligators, we at least saw a funny statue at a local park of a man going on a walk with an alligator.  I decided it would be funny to ride the alligator statue as though it were a

Today's travel Today is the only day that I missed school during my time away, but this is only because we started our drive home to Connecticut. It was very sad to leave the warmth and sunshine.  I told my parents that if it weren't for wanting to get back to our cats at home, I would've wanted to stay in Florida forever.  I love the warm weather. I love the beach. I love the pool.  Also, I wasn't looking forward to coming back to the final stretch of winter.  On the other hand, if I couldn't move to Florida then I am, however, looking forward to seeing my Tariffville friends again. Before hitting the road, my family took one last walk down to the beach to put our toes in the water and write our name in the sand.  Before we left Pompano Beach we did a quick drive by of the Goodyear Blimp Hangar.  If you've ever been to a sporting event and saw the Goodyear Blimp flying overhead, you know how large the blimp is.  We were sort of hoping that we could see the blim

  Our Florida "classroom" For the remainder of our time in Pompano Beach, we sort of had the same routine every day.  We decided to stay closer to our hotel to enjoy the rest of our time there and simply just enjoy the beach and the pool each day.  Of course, before we could enjoy that, my sister and I had a full day of distance learning (and my dad had a full dad of working remotely too). But once school was over for the day, we either went to the beach (which was just outside of our hotel) or we spent time at the hotel's pool.  Sand castles Hotel pool While at the beach, I either worked on sand castles or boogie boarded in the waves.  One day, however, my mom took me out on a jet ski and that was a lot of fun.  I have included a video of us leaving on the jet ski.  In the video, we are going very slow because my mom had to drive the jet ski through a "swim zone" first, but eventually, when we got further away from shore we were able to go pretty fast and it wa

Miami Beach, Florida Today was CRAZY WINDY and a little cooler so we opted to drive into Miami to explore, instead of spending the day going to the beach or pool. Since it was the weekend, we had the time to do this; the next day I would be back to distance learning during the day.   Miami Beach was about an hour drive south of our hotel.  Miami Beach is off the coast of the city of Miami.  One thing that Miami Beach is known for is the colorful buildings.  The buildings' style is called "Art Deco" which is a style that was very popular in the 1920's (one hundred years ago!).  It was kind of interesting to see a whole neighborhood of buildings built in this style.  Below you can see a couple of pictures of the Art Deco buildings in Miami. Miami Beach art deco Miami Beach art deco Ocean Drive - Miami Beach While in Miami Beach, we enjoyed lunch and some ice cream.  There were several street entertainers - one of the magicians, in particular, was very fun to watch.   Lu

  A view of the Atlantic Ocean from our hotel room's balcony My mom always says that anywhere near the water is her happy place.  I have to admit, I can see why she says this.  Of course, being able to be in the warmth and sunshine right now isn't so bad either, especially when there is snow in Connecticut.  Since my mom needed to head out to do some grocery shopping for the week and also since we had done a ton of adventuring over the past few days, we decided that this day would be a perfect day to hang out and enjoy our hotel. While my mom went grocery shopping I was in the pool with my dad.  I stayed in the pool pretty much the entire day, with my mom and sister joining me later.   We could also see our hotel's pool from our balcony My mom got some prepared food, from Whole Foods for dinner that we ate in our room.  Dinner in our hotel room After dinner we went to the beach.  Yes, it was already dark outside, but that was part of the plan.  My mom packed some wiffle bal

Cudjoe Key to Pompano Beach Today was our "moving day".  We left the Florida Keys after school and drove 180 miles to Pompano Beach, Florida.  Although we had to check out of our vacation home at noon, we still had to figure out how to finish up distance learning for the day before starting our drive.  Luckily there was community center on the property where we stayed, so my mom and dad hooked up my sister and me so that we could finish the final two hours of our school day in Cudjoe Key.  Finish our school day before we leave the Keys Heading back north, off of the Keys, we all enjoyed the scenery of our ride.  Without a doubt, the best view of the drive is on the Seven Mile Bridge.  To be honest, it was sort of sad to say good-bye to this bridge, but we were also looking forward to our next stay - Pompano Beach. Seven Mile Bridge During our drive, we made a stop on Islamorada Key at a place called "Robbie's of Islamorada".  Robbie's is a waterfront watersp