Reality Bites.

FLA Day 4

We got up this morning to another beautiful day.  The plan today is to go Go Karting and then to lunch at PF Chang’s, come home and chill in the resort..that’s not exactly how it went.

I finished up the blog outside while everyone started waking up and moving.  Sarah put on Love is Blind to watch an episode, I think they ended up watching two maybe because “You just can’t end there!”.  Joy sent me a couple of photos of Zehrs she took last night at 5pm. I might have put those in yesterday’s blog I can’t remember. 





So I spent some time this morning ordering some groceries from Costco and Amazon to prepare for our 14 day self-quarantine when we get home.  We still don’t have an immediate plan to head out, our flight is Thursday and today is Sunday...we are cautiously optimistic that we will make it until Thursday but are watching the news and having a daily check in or two on how we are feeling and what we want to do.  Just in case this goes on and on and on I signed up for a farm CSA for fresh fruits and vegetables through the summer.  I’ve always thought of doing it but this was a good excuse to actually do it.

We were trying to figure out the order for today, lunch and then karting or vice versa, Julia suggested we go kart first since PF Chang’s often requires a bathroom imminently...its so good.

I didn’t get a photo yesterday of the girls souvenirs so I took a photo of Paige but she was being crusty so I told her “fine, I’ll take a picture without your face in it”...then she put her finger in Sophie’s picture just to prove her crustiness.









We finally got organized and headed out to Andretti Indoor Go Karting which, conveniently, is located about 5 minutes from PF Chang’s.  Kobe is sporting his vacay tee. 

The GPS on the Q7 is the worst ever, it doesn’t just tell you when you are supposed to exit but tells you upcoming exits, so Jay exited when he didn’t need to and then we had to get back on the highway.

We got there, registered and had about 30 minutes until our ride time.  Anyone without a drivers license was on the Intermediate track and we were on the Adult track.  The Go Karts were electric and a TONNE of fun!  We had 7 laps and the winner is the person with the single fastest lap time.











Jay won and I came third - I LOVE go karting!

The kids it was hard for them, if you didn’t get the Kart moving fast enough it didn’t have power steering and it was hard for them to get moving, so a lot of the time they were stuck at a corner and had to get the course marshalls to readjust them so they could continue.  And they got stuck behind a group of slower riders too so it was kind of a bust for Avery, Emily, Sophie, Paige, Myah and Ellie.

As soon as we finished Go Karting I got a text from a good friend of ours, who’s opinion we value not only because of his experience but also because he’s in a position to have information we may not have...he suggested we come home immediately.  So, Jay and I talked about it and decided we would leave.  Paige didn’t want to fly, she started to panic about it and I don’t want her to end up with a lifetime of anxiety over flying, so we will drive.  Sarah and Ellie will drive with us and we will leave first thing in the morning.  Jay and Sophie will fly, Sophie gets car sick and the long drive just wouldn’t be for her.  We don’t want to separate but it makes sense.

We still went to PF Chang’s for lunch, but then after lunch we sent all the kids back to the house with the Faust’s in their car and Jay, Sarah and I went to the airport to a) try to get Jay and Sophie on a flight and b) change our rental car to a one way drop off in Toronto.  I ended up having to book Jay and Sophie onto a 7am flight for tomorrow, it was the earliest we could do.  Alamo was super great about changing the car.  They were really relieved when I said that I didn’t need to keep the Q7 that I could take any SUV.  So they switched me to a Durango, no one way drop fee and we switched the cars.

On the way home from the airport another good friend who has access to accurate information called and said to come home as soon as we can, so Sarah and I decided to leave today instead of waiting until tomorrow to get a bit of a head start on the drive.  What we are hearing, but have no confirmation of, is that there may be a mandatory quarantine in quarantine facilities (not at home) soon to be imposed on returning Canadians.  Whether that is from all locations around the world or excludes the US there is no way to know and whether or not it is accurate information and will come to pass is also unknown, but I have enough trust in these two people and on top of that the rest of the news and media that we aren’t willing to take the risk of staying any longer.  Suddenly the risk reward ratio has swung much further to risk.  We will self-quarantine upon return, we planned to anyway, but will be diligent with it when we get back.

There is a hotel at the airport so I booked Jay and Sophie into that, we went home, packed, waited for the kids to get back from the water park and then left.  We were on the road just after 6pm and dropped Sophie and Jay off back at the airport hotel on our way.

Sarah made a loaf of breads worth of peanut butter and jam sandwiches so we have that in the car and that’s what we had for dinner.

Sarah and I drove until about 11:45pm and then got off the highway and booked into a Best Western just off the highway. Set the alarm for 6am and will keep driving tomorrow.

Ellie asked about the portrait mode on the phone so I showed her in the parking lot. This is what midnight looks like.