I know the calendar says summer just started. But that’s not how we roll in the McGee household. School got out May 28 and we took off June 1. We live in Florida, and, yeah, what this says…
I love Florida, but we have lots of family and friends in places other than Florida, and summertime is when we get to see them. So we took off and spent our first night away in Rainbow City, AL, visiting friends. We were there the same time as Kenny Rogers. But as I like his chicken far more than his music (sorry fans!), we stayed at the Wallace’s house and enjoyed some sweet fellowship and delicious food. After going to church with them in the morning, we drove up to McKenzie, TN to visit my grandmother.
She is almost 85 years old, and in amazing shape. My kids love visiting her because 1) She is awesome and 2) the town she lives in is awesome. We are city folks, so the idea of having a bunch of friends all within walking distance blows their minds. They even met a cousin they never knew. Granted, he was a 3rd or 4th cousin. But a cousin nonetheless. Another benefit of small towns: my grandfather was one of seven kids, and they all lived in this area, so relatives are all over the place!
Because McKenzie is just a couple hours from the Thomas Nelson headquarters, I drove over there one day and spent the morning with the amazing TNZ Fiction team. Have I mentioned how much I LOVE my publisher? We talked about all things Anomaly and just life in general. They always send me away with a pile of books (na-na-na-na-nah!) and this time, they gave me something I’ve never seen before: a “Flat” of the Anomaly cover! So cool!!
Dave and I left the girls with Grandmother in McKenzie and drove with Thomas up to my sister Alexis’ house in Owensboro, KY. We hung out with her and her husband Nathan, and Thomas played with their sweet daughter, Calla.
Then Dave and I drove over to Louisville KY, where I spent the week grading AP Lit essays. Dave teaches online and he is finishing up his doctorate, so he spent the days working in the hotel room. Evenings were date nights. This is our fourth year to go up to Louisville for the Reading. I love being around all those English teachers (1000+!) and picking their brains for new ideas. And Dave and I enjoy the mini-getaway! Louisville is a cool city.
When that was done, we drove back to McKenzie. Alexis was down there with Calla (and Thomas), so the four cousins got to play, play, play. Very fun! We were going to go straight home after that. But…we decided to go home via Texas instead! My other sister, Becca, and niece, Nora, live in Ft. Worth. And we used to live in Midlothian (south of Dallas), so Texas is in our blood, and we need to go back every once in a while for a little Lone Star love. It was a SUPER short trip (we could only stay two days…the girls had to get back for camp!), so we didn’t see all the friends we wanted to see, but we did get to see some. It was well worth the drive! We even got to stop off and see friends in Arkansas on the way down. So fun!
Thursday morning, June 19, we got up bright and early and began the 1200 mile drive back to Tampa. Because we drove right through Monroe, LA, we had to stop off at Duck Commander Headquarters (please tell me you know what that is!). No sightings of the Robertsons, but we did get some cool photos :).
We got home last night, tired, sore, but happy, happy, happy.
And THAT’S what I did on my summer vacation!
