The Sign Part 1
17Then God said to Noah, “Yes, this rainbow is the sign of the covenant I am confirming with all the creatures of the earth.” (Genesis 9:17)
Happy Friday y’all. We just got back from our first trip down to Florida to see family and friends since my return to the States. It was a fun filled five days and we were soaking in every moment. As I shared in my last post, we had started our trip with a modified version of remembrance in honoring our fallen heroes for Memorial Day. We followed the holiday with our annual trip to Busch Gardens, Tampa, thanks to their gracious program for Service Members and Veterans. Waves of Honor gifts the forementioned with a free park admission and up to three more tickets for direct dependents to either Busch Gardens (BG) or SeaWorld. With current single-day admission for BG at $149, without Waves of Honor, we would not be making that trip each year. BG still made a lot of money off of us, as the price of food and souvenirs is enough to offset the cost the park ate by gifting us with free admission. If you are reading this and you are a Veteran or Service Member, I hope you take advantage of this amazing opportunity as often as you can. We have decided that we will no longer be redeeming this annual offer around the summertime. Last year, we came to BG during our kids’ Georgia Spring Break, believing we would be safe from the crowds in the middle of the week (as Florida’s schools’ Spring Break had been a few weeks earlier). Well, that day was met with disaster as school bus after school bus rolled up as we were walking to the front gate. We had to share the park that day with every Middle School and High School in Hillsborough County. This year was a little better, but even though school was out, there were still a handful of MS groups clogging up the ride lines. Ride lines for most of the popular coasters were much shorter than last year, with the longest only being about fifty minutes long, whereas the previous year, my oldest and I stood in the line for Iron Gwazi for nearly two hours.
The other big thing we did while down in Florida was meet a close friend’s family for a sunset evening at the world-famous Siesta Key Beach in Sarasota. God gifted us with a stunning evening, and it was a magical. Below are some of the pictures we captured of the breath-taking tapestry God painted throughout the sky.
Siesta is known for its brilliantly white, sugar-soft sand, which can be seen in the picture above. And because it is on the west coast of Florida, it hosts brilliant sunsets, as seen in the photo below.
I found it comical how, as the sun was setting, the crowd was all on their feet, trying to capture the beauty of the sun lighting up the horizon for their social media accounts. While I quickly partook in that activity, I did my best to just enjoy life happening around me. My son splashed through the waves with my friend’s two sons; SGZ3 bobbed in knee-deep, crystal-clear water; and SGZ1 snapped some stunning photos with her phone.
If you are ever in the Tampa/Clearwater/Bradenton/Sarasota area, Siesta Key is definitely worth the trip. Or even planning a stay on the Key is well worth it, as there are many amazing restaurants on the Island, the island is very family friendly, and there are plenty of adult things to do in the nearby city of Sarasota.
In between all these activities, we spent as much time at my parent’s home as we could, so they could soak in special moments with their grandchildren. Every night, we wound down by watching the latest releases of Bluey, which included the Season 3 “Grand Finale” entitled “The Sign“.
“The Sign” had so many God-inspired moments, that I had to sit down and put a post together about it, but I will get to that tomorrow. Our five-day vacation wore me out, and I was unable to get up earlier than my little ones, so they deserve my attention at this point. So, I will close this post with one more new music release from last Friday, before I begin sharing the amazing new releases from this week. God bless you and your day!
Common Sense Reborn 