Saturday September 11th
Yippee!!! Here we were at last, our first full day in wonderful sunny Florida. We had a bit of a lie in, but the plan was to go for an all you can eat breakfast and then hit Wal-Mart for a food shop. However we were all still a bit knackered and not really that hungry so sitting by the pool watching the kids splash around was the order of the day…..well until lunchtime anyway.
We also had to wait in for my FIL’s scooter to be delivered. We had arranged for the hire of an electric scooter for him so that he felt he had some independence (not to mention that I wouldn’t have to push him!!). It took us a bit of time and another trip to the 7/11 to figure out how to get the phone to work, however one phone card and a call to the scooter man later and low and behold the tattiest, oldest looking scooter you have ever seen arrived at our door. I looked at it sceptically but the elderly gentleman who delivered it assured me it was good for 21 miles between charges, and it did come with a nice sun canopy which he had invented himself.
We did have one potential horror moment that morning when my eight year old son fresh from the pool and chasing his little sister slipped on the ceramic tiles at the front door and gave himself a massive egg on the back of his head. Lots of tears and screams but no blood, which is good. I am a trained first aider and gave him the once over. He showed no signs of anything more serious than a bump on the head and so I opted to keep an eye on him for the rest of the day rather than run for the nearest doctor. After another lecture about going into the villa without getting dried first he was back in the pool splashing about like a nutter.
Eventually our rumbling stomachs got the better of us and we decided to make a move. I had heard from some of the seasoned Florida veterans at my work (and there are quite a lot) that Charley’s Steakhouse was a good place to eat especially if it was a special occasion. Well if we had not been delayed a week our first Saturday would also have been my mother in laws 64th birthday and the plan had been to spend the evening at Charley’s. We decided therefore to stick to the plan anyway and celebrate her birthday one more time. I thought it would be an idea to reserve a table so we set off in the “BUS” as it had been affectionately christened in search of the famous Charley’s.
We found it no problem and were busy congratulating ourselves when we realised it was shut!! “Oh well, we will just have to come back tonight” we told ourselves as we headed back along the 192 in search of Wal-Mart. (Yes I know there is a brand new one down Poinciana but clever me forgot to print the directions before leaving Scotland and there was no way I was going to risk getting lost while trying to find it, not with a bus full of hungry family members anyway.)
As we travelled along the 192 the rumbling stomachs became too much too bear and so we vowed to stop at the very next eatery for some lunch. We ended up at the UNO Chicago Grill which is a very nice place next to Chilli’s. “Kids pay what they weigh” declared the sign as we entered, and sure enough the hostess got them to jump onto a very large set of scales before leading us to our table. I resisted the temptation to crack any jokes about how lucky we were that the rest of us didn’t need to pay what we weigh!!!
We had a lovely lunch washed down with ice cold beer and the service was superb, well worth the tip we left. (There is nothing funnier than watching my wife and her sister trying to work out 15% of $93.75. Yeah i know it would have been easier to work out 20% but give us a break, we are Scots after all!!)
Then it was onto the famous Wal-Mart, what can I say, I am not the world’s best shopper. It was just a big ASDA to me but the way the girls eyes widened you would have thought they had discovered next week’s lottery numbers. An hour and a half (and many bucks) later we were heading back to the villa.
We spent the rest of the afternoon in and beside the pool, slowly, one by one, member
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