Birthdays and Florida

Late August is birthday season in our house...Fiona (28th) and me (31st). However, things have been too busy to have appropriate celebrations just yet. On Thursday night we began the two day drive south to see Mindy's father in Florida. 7 hours on the highway, thankfully avoiding any traffic hassles, got us to Wilson, North Carolina where we made our scheduled stop. Leaving the next morning, we spent the next day driving tha final 7 hours to Jacksonville. The highlight of the trip was a brief stop at "South of the Border", an non-politically correct "Mexican" outpost on the border between North and South Carolina. It is a collection of shops, loosely grouped together on the fact that "Pedro" is supposed to have stopped there and started a sandwich shop many years ago. The billboards advertising the place start about 100 miles out and show a caricature of Pedro and some bad pun of a slogan, often typed in such a way as to emphasise the Mexican accent. It is quite tacky but kind of an interesting place to stretch your legs. In the store we bought two Whoopee Cushions which amused the kids for the next couple of hours of the drive.

Since arriving in Jacksonville, we have basically been relaxing and hanging out with Mindy's family. Today we went fishing and the only luck one was Fiona, who caught two! She was quite excited and proud of herself. We plan to go back out later this afternoon when the tide is heading out.