Aloha and Holo Holo: The trip home from Orlando

Thursday, January 19, 2017

The trip home from Orlando

We left Orlando on the 6th and headed up to the Pensacola area for a couple of nights. Along the way we met Winter head-on, and we almost froze to death when we got to Lambert's Cafe in our short-sleeved shirts. If you aren't familiar, Lambert's is the home of "throwed rolls," meaning the softball-sized rolls are actually tossed to you, sometimes from across the dining room. This was absolutely thrilling for our group, and Weston kept trying to get the thrower to hurl the rolls from farther and farther away, which the thrower seemed delighted to do. They have their own unique way of serving good old Southern comfort food, and everything was so delicious.

We survived the freezing temperatures at our KOA and were able to enjoy a yummy breakfast at a cafe that could easily have been mistaken for a bait shop, before heading over to the National Naval Aviation Museum. It was so interesting to see all the planes and learn about the history and technology of many of them. I can tell you for certain I was not meant to be a Blue Angel! We ended the day with dinner at The Cobalt Restaurant, overlooking the Gulf.

When we woke up on the 8th, we left Pensacola knowing only that we weren't really ready to end our vacation and that we didn't want to go home. We also knew we were hungry. A quick internet search introduced us to The Biscuit King's Fun Barn: Home of the Ugly Biscuit, and there was no way we were going to pass that up! I don't think I can capture in words the experience, but everything about it was so fantastic. One reason we travel is to discover little gems like this.

After we had eaten our scrumptious ugly biscuits and collected all manner of free stuff from the Biscuit King himself, we knew we would be heading in a westerly direction, but other than that had no end point in mind. So, while Jeff drove, taking us to interesting places like LSU and the Horseshoe Casino, I searched around online until I found a little cabin outside of Jefferson, TX, on Lake O' the Pines, where we could just chill. Literally, as it turned out, because the pipes had frozen and one was busted and making a river outside the house (thankfully not inside!) when we showed up around 10:00 pm, leaving us with no hot water. (The owner came first thing in the morning and got everything patched up, so it really wasn't a big deal.) We spent our time there reading and watching football and consuming warm beverages. It was truly restful, and we were glad we decided to extend our vacation. We did eventually make it home but were only here for less than 24 hours before embracing our next adventure, which is a tale I will save for another post.