The Kintz's

The Kintz's

Monday, July 26, 2010

Key West Family Vacation 2010


On Tuesday July 20, 2010 we took off for Key West, Florida. Mom and dad had decided that they wanted to take all of their children and their significant others on a vacation since we have not done so since I was 18 years old. We stopped and stayed in Miami on Tuesday night. Wednesday morning we left Miami. Mom and dad rented a house for us siblings to stay in while they had a hotel room for the two of them. We had such a wonderful trip! The first day we went and laid by the pool at the hotel and then explored Key West. Our cab driver told us of a local restaurant that served all you can eat crab legs and we decided to try it out. We thought it may not be that great since it is all you can eat, boy were we wrong. It was AMAZING. We all seemed to agree that it was the best crab!! We sat there for a good two hours eating. We then walked all over Key West and listened to some live bands play. On Thursday we rented scooters. This was the eventful day. We each had our own scooters so there were 8 of us trying to keep up together driving down the roads of Key West. About 20 minutes into the ride, I was trying to back my scooter out of my parking spot and accidentally pushed the gas. It took off and I flew along with it ramping a curb. As soon as I thought I had it under control and the scooter was laying on top of me, I accidentally pulled the gas again trying to pick up the scooter and off it went again dragging me along behind it into a telephone pole. I have a thing for poles because a few months ago I ran into a metal pole and knocked my teeth out. However; I was alright this time just scratched and bruised up. The scooter had some minor damage and we continued on our ride. We decided after about 5 hours of stopping at every stoplight we wanted some open road to just go as fast as we could. We decided to go on the main highway over the bridge to enter Key West. Hunter took the lead and was flying so fast down the 55 mph highway at about 25-30 mph while Mike took the caboose only going about 15-20 mph because his scooter was broken. All 8 of us were spread out in a single file line driving down the lane of the major highway. Dad and Mike decided after about 8 miles to pull off because they could not catch everyone. We were trying to get up to Hunter to tell him to turn around but he was just flying down the highway. Finally, we all decided to turn around and go find Mike and dad. As we were heading back after about 9 miles on the highway, we hear police sirens and lights pulling us over. We look ahead and dad and Mike are on the side of the road with another cop. They told us how dangerous it was to be doing what we were doing and how we were not allowed to be on that main highway. No tickets were issued but they escorted us all the way back to the island. What an adventure! We went back and hung by the pool before hitting up an all you can eat buffet on Duval Street. This night us siblings headed back to the house and stayed up until about 4 am playing the one and only "Loaded Questions". This was the night Hurricane Bonnie was supposed to roll through Key West but never showed up. On our last day in Key West we ate lunch at Willy T's on Duval street and then went shopping a bit. We decided to do the pool one more day and then get ready for our fancy dinner. Dad made reservations at Braza Lena which is a Brazilian steakhouse. They treated us to a wonderful dinner and desserts!!!! We then went back to the hotel and played Apples to Apples as a family. The next morning we drove back home and got some much needed rest! It was an excellent trip and I hope we can do this every year! It was so nice to just have our original Witter family with our significant others! :)


Wednesday, July 7, 2010

Cruisin...


It had been years since Mike and his mom and grandmother had been on a vacation together. We decided this year would be a perfect time. On June 21 we boarded the cruise in Port Canveral, FL. The cruise itenerary went from Port Canaveral to CoCoCay, Bahamas to Nassau, Bahamas, and back to Port Canveral. It was a 4-night cruise on Royal Caribbean. We absolutely loved our trip. It was relaxing to be away, but we stayed very active on the ship with laying out, swimming, shows, games, etc. The day in CoCoCay, you had to get on a small boat to take you to the private island where we hung out all day. On the way back from the island, Mike and I boarded a boat where a stretcher was being brought on board from a young man (about 18 years old) who had a seizure and almost drown in the ocean while snorkeling. Come to find out later this was worse than we all thought and our cruise ship had to dock one night early in Nassau to send this guy back to the U.S. to a hospital. Therefore; we docked early and Mike and I decided to get off the boat and make a night of it at Senor Frogs. It was a great time and we danced the night away to the local band. We also participated one night in the adult scavenger hunt where it was so much fun but very dirty! Mike ended up at the end of the night going on stage in just his boxers, my bra, womens shoes, and a purse. He had to dance across the stage while being video-taped. Im sure it will be posted on Youtube someday. haha. On the ship, dinners were wonderful as we ate several courses each night and sometimes even getting double main courses or appetizers. The food is by far the best part of cruising- It never stops! Some nights we would get really hungry at 2 am and run up to the top deck for pizza and cookies. In Nassau, we took a boat over to the Atlantis Resort and walked around the aquariums and resort. It is such a beautiful atmosphere! Overall, it was a wonderful cruise and we really enjoyed our company. We hope to go cruising again very soon. It is our favorite form of vacation!