To Grandfather's House We Go! Part 4

After the bedtime excitement mentioned in Part 3 of the story, Chris and I slept well and woke up the next day at Mom's house, ready to hang out more in the Tampa area.  Chris and Lily made up after their fracas of the previous night, so everyone was friends again:

I'm pretty sure Chris

is holding his breath here.

We puttered around Mom's house for a bit and then headed to the northern end of Pinellas County to visit with my good friend Sarah and her family, who were also at their Mom's house for the holidays.  Since the traffic patterns there are never a certainty, we ended up a bit on the early side, and we cruised through downtown Palm Harbor past several houses where we used to live, checking out the old stomping grounds.  Eventually, it wasn't too painfully early to go see Sarah and the crew.  We so enjoyed visiting with Sarah, her soon to be hubby Kevin, her Mom Maureen (Mo!), sisters Heather and Alicia, niece Rachel, and the newest addition to the family, her wee little dude Aaron!  Sarah and I grew up together, so it was great to see all of her family again and spend more time with Kevin, who we met last October during our visit to NYC.  Additionally, it was fantastic to meet Aaron for the first time, although I don't believe he was particularly impressed with any of us (being five months old will do that to you, I suppose).  Did I take any pictures whatsoever of our joyful reunion?  Of course not - we were too busy talking and eating and laughing and telling stories - but know that an absolutely wonderful time was had and we very much appreciated the time they took out of their holiday celebrations to spend it with us.

After wishing all of the Lucas-Stein-Nations-McMillan-Huemme family goodbye, we hopped back in Mom's car for some further local ground sightseeing.  We stopped at the Galley for a Greek salad to go, to be eaten later for snacktime (man, so good), and then we headed to the park in Dunedin where Chris and I had our wedding ceremony some 13 years earlier (it was wedding reminiscing week or something).

The nicer shot...

...being goofballs...

...selfie with Mom.

I'm short.

We checked up with Jim and Leigh, who were heading back home after attending another round of doctor visits, and we planned to meet them at another newer brewery in the area, Big Storm.  Upon arriving at Big Storm, we grabbed some flights and introduced Mom to some new beer she hadn't experienced before, including a dunkelweiss she really liked (this is a big deal as Mom normally only drinks lagers, but she's working on branching out)!

Delightful!

We really enjoyed the selection at Big Storm; while not everything was epic, most of the brews were quite delicious, and we'd absolutely visit again.  We decided snack time was officially upon us, so after receiving the approval from the folks behind the bar (they currently don't serve food other than pub mix at Big Storm, but this is apparently changing soon), we broke out the salad:

As is our norm, Chris and I spent some time checking every beer we tasted into the Untappd app, and apparently, at Big Storm, they keep tabs on you for things like this.  We looked up at the big screen as we were leaving and were like, that's us!

My login is the Bella in a tutu picture,

and Chris' is Harley with an alligator toy.

Overall, it was a delicious stop.  Jim and Leigh met us there, and we headed back to Mom's house to recoup and relax for a bit longer.  While there, Jim helped us figure out Mom's WiFi password (WiFi or die!), and we indulged in a longstanding Ashley-Olsen sibling tradition, internet sharing time.

In this picture,

I believe I'm introducing Jim and Lily

to "Pen-Pineapple-Apple-Pen."

Everyone is so welcome.

We finally got ourselves in gear and headed out to see a really neat light display at a local botanical garden; the fee to get in was only a $4 suggested donation per person, so it was well worth the value.  Plus, Jim and Leigh brought along these super cool 3D glasses made specifically for viewing lights that caused all of the lights to appear as different shapes, like snowflakes or bells or snowmen.  It was seriously rad.

Just some random lights.

The overall exhibit was more impressive

than just this, trust me.

Insert "you know you're in Florida when..." joke here.

Leigh and I hanging out

on two tiny chairs made of palm stumps.

After digging 8 of these f*ckers out of our backyard,

I can see why they made these two

into chairs instead.

After the lights, we continued on to downtown St. Petersburg, where we found Annata Wine Bar, a great spot for dinner on the main pedestrian area next to Straub Park.  As it turned out, Tuesday was half-price apps, drinks, and pasta night, so we all ate for a really reasonable price, and the food was good, too.  We finished up our night by wandering the main drag for just a bit, and then headed out. At Mom's house, we hugged Leigh goodbye, as this was the last time we'd see her on this trip.

Somebody made a friend!

The next morning, Wednesday the 28th, we woke up on our final morning in the area.  We took some time to pack up and ensure we cleaned up the spare bedroom as best we could, and then we hopped in the car to visit Jim at his workshop.

One last picture outside Mom's house.

Jim gave us a full tour of the shop, and we met some of his coworkers as well.  The guy who owns the shop, Chase, wasn't there at the time, but his parents were, and his Mom upon meeting me told me how beautiful I was.  Obviously, she's my new favorite person.

Jim hopped in the car with us and we headed to lunch at one of my favorite local places, Sonny's BBQ.  Do you have that place in your hometown where you ate a million times growing up, and you still go back there every time you're nearby, even though it's not actually that great?  Yeah, that's Sonny's for me.

Thumbs up for only average barbeque!

Jim and Mom and clearly humoring me here.

After Sonny's, it was time to head on to the airport, where we hugged Mom and Jim goodbye and let them know how much we enjoyed our trip.  We breezed through security, so there was plenty of time for Chris to have a beer and us to split a slice of key lime pie at Cigar City Brewery inside the airport.

Noms!

...and with that, our trip came to a successful end.  We had such a wonderful time seeing family and friends again and visiting over the holidays.  Here's to many more such celebrations in the future!

Later!

Amy