Spring Break Part II

Part II of Spring Break was spent at my in-law’s beach condo. AB perched herself and claimed her Pappy’s spot on the couch as her own as soon as we got there.

My Mom was able to take the week off, too, and go with us. I was seriously hoping for some sun on my painfully white legs and AB was so excited about swimming for the first time of the season.

That’s not exactly how the rest of the week turned out though.

The weather was far from ideal, but we still had a great time.

We headed down after lunch on Tuesday. We made our Target run and had dinner at Red Robin. That night, because of the cold weather, we looked up things to do in the area that weren’t beach related. We found quite a few things and decided to make a day of it on Wednesday.

We started out by visiting “The Casements” which was the vacation home of John D. Rockefeller. The city owns the building now and uses the downstairs space for municipal offices, but the upstairs’ rooms are set up like they were when the Rockefeller’s owned the house. It sits right on the Halifax and has a great view. The girls loved getting to run down by the water.

Next, we hit the Angel & Phelps Chocolate Factory for a tour. The business was started in the 1920’s by two best friends in Mackinac Island, Michigan. (Which is on my list of places I want to someday visit). The ladies made it big in Mackinac and were able to spend the winter months at vacation homes in Daytona.

They loved the area so much, and after business slowed down in Michigan, their families relocated to Florida where they opened shop here. They ran the company for years and then finally retired and sold it, but the new owners kept the name and continued to use all of the their same recipes. Of course we bought some treats on our way out.

We made a stop for lunch and then decided to head to the Children’s museum. The Daytona Museum of Arts & Science had lots of neat things to offer. We made a quick stroll through some of the art exhibits and I was excited to see an Andy Warhol painting. AB even remembered his name from some of the Little Einstein episodes. The bug collection was also pretty impressive- crazy that most of the bugs were collected in the 1950’s. Maybree fell asleep in her stroller, so we decided to just tour some more of the museum before going to our scheduled showing at the Planetarium and then wrapping it up letting the girls play in the Children's part. I was excited about the planetarium because space and the planets have always interested me. Turns out, the show were were watching were on the stars and different constellations. AB and I both fell asleep during it and the only noteworthy thing to say about it was that we made it to the last showing of it in the museum. They’re in the process of building a new planetarium with a different show, so that one was closing.

After we all woke up from our planetarium naps, we let the girls explore the children’s museum.

We’d read it was great and very hands-on.

It was fantastic! The girls played for about an hour there.

On our way out, we walked through the Coca-Cola exhibit

which ended with a really big (and strange) collection of teddy bears.

It reminded me of a time I went to an estate sale and felt so sad walking through the couple’s home. It broke my heart to see all of their worldly belongings being plundered through. Did these people not have some kids who wanted their things? If no children, then maybe a niece or nephew? SOMEONE? Then, when one of the bedrooms was entirely filled, top to bottom, with a Boyd's Bears collection, I understood WHY their family might have not been takers on their estate. I mean, really- what in the world are loved ones supposed to do with something like that… All these years of wondering, and my question was finally answered…apparently, donate it to a museum. :)

We left just before getting kicked out since Maybree was trying her hardest to climb up the stairs of the bear house and let herself in.

 

We took our Goldilocks-wanna-be and her big sister to see the last thing on our list, which was the Sugar Mill Gardens. The gardens are part of what used to be the Dunlawton Sugar Plantation. Years ago, sugar cane was grown and processed through the mill there before an Indian tribe came and burnt it down. The plantation was purchased and restored and later a new owner tried to turn it into a Florida tourist attraction called “BongoLand” – as part of the park, they brought in large concrete dinosaur statues, that still remain on the property today. (Very random but a big hit with the little crowd).

The grounds are maintained beautifully and it really is a pretty place to walk around and enjoy the outdoors.

When we made it back to the condo we were exhausted from a full day of adventure and decided to just get some delivery for dinner.

The rest of the week later…

~amw~