Hide the Chicken

Hide the Chicken: a game I made up (when I found this awesome little plastic chicken in the grocery store) to entertain the kids in an extremely unchildproofed house (think Lily in the china cabinet....no seriously, she was in the china cabinet!)  

Because my grandma fell and unfortunately landed in the hospital, we ended up trekking back over to her neck of the swamp. I knew from the get go that the trip was going to be one of THOSE trips. I knew this because, although we started getting things packed and ready around 10 a.m. Sunday morning, we didn’t get out of the town until about two days later....not really, but it was after 12. And then, what should have been a 2 hour trip, took us three and a half (years!) with all the bathroom and feeding breaks. And I am pretty sure the kids screamed the entire trip…which was all up hill….both ways….and our car had no tires…and it snowed. Seriously though, it did have some rough spots but I decided to make the most of it and took some pictures to help tell the story of our little visit. 

The first few are just a little taste of the center of the state, the way all of Florida USED to be, in the good old days, before that darned squeaky mouse took over the state and the tourists started coming by the droves, apparently to visit huge, oversized stores and buy cheap t-shirts with FLORIDA written in big neon letters across the front….with a palm tree….or a flamingo. 

A Cyprus Dome

The view from our picnic table at the park

Next is proof that there are still a few gas stations here with gas under $4. (Eat your hearts out CA friends!)

Here is Lake Hollingsworth, down the street from my grandma’s house. The thing to note in this pic is the plethora of Lily Pads growing at the edge of the lake. GG is credited with having thrown the first Lily Pad seeds into the lake, not realizing how fast and furious they grow and that they would one day cost the city TONS of money to keep up with so that they don’t take over the lake entirely. Go Grandma!

One of my favorite Florida signs is this Alligator warning sign:

Apparently, there are alligators in this body of water (DUH! and EVERY OTHER BODY OF WATER IN FL!) and it’s against the law to feed the gators (here gator, gator, gator…come get this chunk of ARM I am DANGLING out to you) and just in case you didn’t understand the first big warning, they put up a similar sign as well….It says "NO SWIMMING" (EEGIT)

 And finally, if you are dumb enough to ignore both these warnings, well, go on and get in there before you have time to procreate!

Here are two random houses. The first is the house I wanted to buy when I was little. Somehow, it doesn’t seem as big and fairy-tale like now. The second is an old southern home with a wrap around porch…what I would give for one of those! Nothing says "hey ya'll, come on over here, sit down and do absolutely nothing productive" like a porch that wraps around the entire house! How can you not just love that?

Here is a sign in one of the small towns we drive through to get to GG’s. It struck me as funny because well, heck, I never thought of leaving ma and pa and granma and cousin billy jean home when I went to vote…

This is one of many, many osprey nests up in the lines on the highway, I4. Apparently this particular bird has been practicing feng shui...you can tell by the way he completed his nest with a sweet little house plant sticking up from the middle. Nothing says cozy like a little greenery.

 

 Another personal favorite. This is Reptile world...in case you didn't catch enough of the FL wildlife on your visit you can come see it up close and personal...and then just in case you should peek in a little too close there is this place, a few minutes later:

  Just don't go praying for a miracle during a thunderstorm as they never quite got around to adding a roof on this chapel...

 Liam, getting in touch with his heritage, right before getting carried away by a swarm of giant mosquitoes...

True white-trash...and who said Florida had no mountains? 

And lastly, no trip to FL is complete without noting one of God's most graceful, mosquito-eating creatures: the birds. 

Here is the Common Egret we got up close to while looking for stupid people swimming with the gators. 

  

For the record, my game wasn't such a hit. It lasted all of 10 minutes and when it was my turn to hide the chicken, the kids followed so close behind it wasn't much of a challenge. And when it was my turn to find the chicken, Madeline, being sweet, overexcited and terribly too helpful, would walk ahead shouting: "Do you see it mom? It's right over here! See it? Look, under THIS chair, right there...see it? Oh GOOD JOB MOM, you found it!"

Well duh...wanna go swimming?