I'd been put off a bit by the outlets in Orlando but Ellenton was a lot different. For a start it seemed smaller and it was very quiet indeed. We only saw a handful of people the whole time we were there. First up was a coffee from Starbucks as I'd been drinking instant for almost two weeks and was really missing a Latte! I treated the family to whatever they wanted and when we eventually emerged with our drinks, Keith wondered where on earth we'd been! Good coffee takes time! My Latte was delicious!
While Keith and Mikey disappeared off to Levi's, Sophie and I had a wander around Bath and Bodyworks and I treated my car...yes, my car! to a smelly air freshener in the shape of a green owl. Hopefully the fragrance will remind me of Florida! Sophie also bought some delicious smelling body spray that made her skin sparkle.
On the way to Levi's we called into Guess and Sophie treated herself to a small red handbag that was somehow $20 less when she took it to the checkout! Bargain!
We found the men in Levi's and Keith had treated himself to two pairs of jeans and had bought Mikey a bag for school. We also discovered that Mikey had chosen three tee-shirts from a shop called Hot Topic so he was very pleased!
All in all, the kids did very well today and both of them got exactly what they wanted. I even bought a couple of tee-shirts from Converse that will be perfect at the gym!
From Ellenton we drove down the 301 to Yoders Amish restaurant. They were celebrating 39 years in business so had balloons and banners everywhere. We were seated straight away and this time I chose the fried chicken fingers with french fries and coleslaw. Sophie had the same as me while the boys went for the half chicken (or emu) with mashed potatoes and green beans. All of us, including Keith, sipped pink lemonade...
As predicted, the portions were huge and two of my chicken fingers, as well as two pieces of Keith's chicken, went into a box to take home for supper. Mikey, incredibly, finished his emu but took his apple crumble pie home. He still had spaghetti from last night's Olive Garden to have for supper!
Rather than dawdle on the busy 301 back to the villa, we sped back on the I-75 and before too long we were all cooling off in the pool. It's been another day of 90+ temperatures.
It was great knowing we hadn't got to go out again so we could laze by the pool and relax. At about 6pm the sky clouded over a bit and by 6.30pm the approaching clouds were really dark. Then the wind got up and a few branches from the oak tree next door came flying over the fence into our garden. The rain started and Mikey decided to take a dip into the pool.
Next thing, the thunder and lightening started and I've never, in all my life, experienced such ferocity from a storm. At one point the thunder was all around us and the flashes of lightening seemed to come in at us as we were sheltering under the roof of the terrace. It really seemed malevolent and I did feel very scared, for the first time in my life!
I videoed it for about five minutes but after one particularly loud clap of thunder that made the hairs on the back of my neck stand up, we fled indoors and then noticed that the road outside the house was flooded and bottles from a recycling box that had overturned up the road were floating down the street as if they were in a river!
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| Our recycling boxes are out but luckily we took in all the paper and cardboard! |
The storm lasted most of the evening. Even when things had calmed down a bit, we still saw flashes of lightening in the sky and the odd rumble of thunder. We had a beautiful sunset though!
We had a very pleasant evening hoovering up all the leftovers and trying to finish off a bottle of Teacher's whisky. Home time is beginning to figure largely now and the packing for the return journey has started. We have to find room for two bottles of Rex Goliath, two bottles of Dreaming Tree and a magnum of Rex Goliath, plus any others we decide to buy tomorrow!
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