Chapter Five: Venice

Back to Florida Saga 2007

After a glimpse of my old home, we made the hour drive to Venice. This was the same drive my family took every Sunday to go to church when we lived in Florida. We decided to stay at a Best Western right off the freeway and were very pleased with our choice. The rooms were spacious and sparkling, the service was cheerful (everyone loved Joshua), and the breakfast was delicious! There was actually meat and eggs available, and they also provided cups of waffle batter and waffle irons to make our own, fresh waffles. If we're ever in Venice, we'll go back there. After a long day of touring swamps, following faulty maps, and seeing old sights, we were excited to make use of the pool so we quickly unloaded our stuff and went for an evening swim.

The next morning we went to the beach and met up with Natalie and Austin Dolby, daughter and son of the pastor of the church my family had gone to. Natalie and I had become good friends and we enjoyed an afternoon of conversation just like old times. It was so nice to see them again and catch up!

This beach was my favorite that my family went to when we lived in the area and I enjoyed showing Eli and Joshua the warm ocean.

Joshua wasn't very interested in swimming in a warm ocean so Eli and I took turns going in. After getting all wet, we bundled him up in a beach towel and he quickly fell asleep.

Joshua was much happier to stay on dry land and see the ocean from afar.

The Dolby family (mostly)

After visiting all afternoon with Natalie (next to me) and Austin (next to his dad), we met the whole family for dinner at Cracker Barrel. I'm glad we managed to get together!

It was a fun day, but notice my arms? We were already beginning to realize that we would pay dearly for all those hours in the sun!