A Fun Day With the Family!

Hello and happy Saturday! I hope this finds each of you having a wonderful weekend. I have thoroughly enjoyed mine so far. Earlier this week, my daughter, Miranda, text me and asked me if we had plans for the weekend. I told her no and she asked if she and her boyfriend, John could come down and spend part of the weekend with us. Well, of course I said yes! I never pass us the opportunity to spend time with my beautiful daughter...:) She wanted to come home and see everyone since her birthday is coming up next week and she already had plans for the weekend after her birthday. Well, I immediately started trying to decide what we could do on Saturday. John had never been to Cedar Key, so I decided we would drive down there and spend a few hours. My mom and dad, my sister, Nancy, and her kids were all able to join us, so, almost the whole family got to go. My son, Dakota, had already made plans to go to Tallahassee (where Miranda lives) to the Florida State game with some friends, so they switched places for the day! I do wish he had been with us, but it was still a fun day! We were all hungry since most of us hadn't eaten all day, so first thing we did was went to eat. The place was called Steamers....see photos below.

My sister, Nancy bought Miranda (aka Randa) a birthday tiara and ordered her a yummy dessert and had the waitresses come over and sing Happy Birthday. Here is Randa wearing her tiara. That handsome young man beside her is John...:) She likes pigs so Aunt Nancy included one in her birthday bag...:)

Here is the yummy food we had. Randa and John each ordered the crab cake sandwich and Joey and I shared a platter which included shrimp, scallops, and grouper. Yum! That's the dessert Nancy ordered for Randa....Peanut Butter Explosion!

Below are a few photos I took from the pier. The first one is the back of the restaurant where we ate. The last one shows the nuclear power plant where my dad used to work. You have to enlarge it to see the smoke stacks in the distance. It is located in Crystal River which is about 50 miles from Cedar Key by land. The bottom photo is a cool fish made from cd's, a muffin pan, and other metal parts. He was hanging in the restaurant.

Below are a couple photos of the kids all goofing off in the fake mustaches Nancy stuck in Randa's bag. She's a nut! That's Nancy on the left in the bottom photo, my mom and dad, and me.

Now, for some fun pix! Check out this adorable little vintage camper. It is the welcome for an RV park in Cedar Key. Isn't is awesome? I love it....so whimsical!

The RV park owners also own a little cafe and fudge shop. My sister wanted to stop in and buy some of their delicious fudge. I had fun looking around at all the whimsy on the porch. I love the way they built the porch around the huge old oak trees . and check out the adorable bird houses and the purple, flying pig in the tree...lol!

I talked Nancy into posing in the ice cream cone...:) Here are just a couple of the varieties of fudge they make.  I tried a small piece of butter pecan and it was tasty! Fudge is so sweet and rich that it only takes a bite or two for me!

Anywho, I ended up riding home with Nancy since we both needed to run into Wally World (aka Wal Mart) to pick up a few things. My nephews, Jake and Nathan wanted to go to the Yum Yum Shop for ice cream, so we did. It is an adorable ice cream parlor in a nearby town. I just had to take a few photos to share. (enlarge to see them better). They have entire walls covered in pictures of people who have eaten ice cream there. The Blue Crew is a wall dedicated to pictures of people (mostly kids) who had the Smurf ice cream which is blue raspberry with marshmallows. My nephew Jake is eating it in the top photo.

They also have a wall of people who have ordered the Pig Trough, which is 24 scoops of ice cream and all toppings...wet and dry. My son and two of his friends are on the wall. I took a picture of the photo on the wall. This was a couple years ago after Dakota broke his foot and had to have surgery on it. He looks so young here.

And, I splurged big time and had a double scoop in a waffle cone. I had the Salted Caramel and Captain's Butterscotch. Nancy had told me how yummy the Salted Caramel was and after tasting it I was wishing I had only gotten that flavor. So tasty!!! I think that was the best ice cream I have ever eaten...:)

I hope you enjoyed visiting Cedar Key and the Yum Yum Shop! I hope to go back to Cedar Key before too long and take lots more photos. It is such a quaint little Gulf Coast town. We didn't have a lot of time today since John and Miranda had to be back to my house by 4:30 for him to whisk her away for a birthday surprise...:) He is such a sweetie! Have a wonderful rest of the weekend my friends!

Until next time.....