Monday morning the girls decide that, pool heater or no pool heater, they’re going in the water. There’s no way I’m going in, so I sit by the pool and start editing my photos, some of which you have seen in my previous posts. It really is lovely and warm, and this is exactly what we need after the last two very long days. I risk a couple of the Walmart “European Style” croissants that we purchased last night. This description tickled me, are other styles available? It was touch and go whether I bought them or not as any croissants with a “best by” date 10 days in the future can’t really be classified as croissants, which should be “best by 3pm today”. However I gave them a try and to my amazement they’re not bad. I’ll try to get up early enough one day to get some fresh ones from the Publix bakery – at least they have the decency to go stale after half a day.
Anyway, I’m fixating on croissants.
So, the kids are slowly turning blue in the pool. Kayleigh practises her flying technique:
And Georgia perfects her taekwondo moves whilst walking on water:
And Miley-Rose models her latest swimsuit whilst practising standing up. She is being so good, I think she’s loving having so many of the family around her all the time.
It’s a very relaxing day, and lots of reading, and in my case, typing, takes place, along with a couple of calls home via Skype and some catch-up emails. Can you imagine a holiday with no Internet access? It doesn’t bear thinking about. The pool heater repair man is conspicuous by his absence, and eventually the girls reach a shade of blue that means it really is time to get out. There’s a flurry of showers and hair drying, then we decide to go for a drive up to the International Drive Premium Outlets Mall, via Fuddruckers where we remember being very impressed with the burgers, both beef and veggie, when we were last here in 2012. I take a scenic route up International Drive so we can enjoy the “sights”, however I don’t enjoy the road works or the dreadful road surfaces, it’s like driving through a field, not along a road. Fuddruckers is in the Festival Mall, which is on the right hand side right at the Northern end of International Drive. We get there despite the roadworks making it almost impossible to work out how to enter the carpark, and then we begin to wonder, is this mall actually still here? The car park is full of diggers and bulldozers and other huge vehicles. The place is surrounded by fencing and it looks deathly quiet – but the lights are on in Fuddruckers.
We send Josh on a reconnaissance mission through the wastelands, and he returns with a thumbs-up. Open for burgers. So, we tread carefully and reach the restaurant, which is, unsurprisingly, very quiet. We have a fantastic meal, they do serious burgers here and the help yourself salad and sauces make it just right. The desserts from the bakery counter are scrumptious too. Mrs Dad’s Taxi forbids me from having one of their milkshakes, I argue that all the salad on my burger has cancelled out the chocolate brownie, but she won’t be convinced. I stick to diet coke. The staff at the restaurant confirm that the majority of the mall is marked for demolition, and this isn’t just a turn of phrase, a huge letter D is spray painted to almost every wall inside the mall, which we can see through the internal windows in Fuddruckers, and it looks like the wrecking ball has made a start on some of the internal stalls in there. I really feel for the restaurant, business must have dropped off to almost zero.
On the way back to the car we meet another family looking just as confused as we were, and reassure them that Fuddruckers are open, and would welcome their custom!
We carry on the last few hundred yards up I-Drive to the Premium Outlets Mall and spend a couple of hours getting some retail therapy, but not going overboard as we know tomorrow’s weather forecast is abysmal so proper shopping is on the agenda. Georgia has her heart set on a particular pair of trainers though, so we visit the Nike store and I’m amazed that it is as easy as:
“have you got them?”, “Yes, over there”, “here’s your size”, “they fit, thanks Dad, let’s go”
Meanwhile Kayleigh fancies herself as a shop mannequin:
We don’t spend too much time here tonight, but we do spend some dollars, as always. We’ll be back here next week as I intend to stock up on shoes from the Rockport/Reebok shop, but that’s not something I want to do in a rush. We agree it’s time to head home and everyone has an early night whilst I continue typing!
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