{"id":3208,"date":"2014-02-19T08:10:32","date_gmt":"2014-02-19T13:10:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.beyondmommying.com\/blog\/?p=3208"},"modified":"2014-02-26T16:04:27","modified_gmt":"2014-02-26T21:04:27","slug":"out-in-ocala","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beyondmommying.com\/blog\/2014\/02\/19\/out-in-ocala\/","title":{"rendered":"Out in Ocala"},"content":{"rendered":"

I guess we\u2019ve started a tradition of boring Valentine\u2019s\/President Day weekends.\u00a0 Last year we headed to Jacksonville where hubby had meetings at our Alma Mater and though we had intentions of big adventures, hubby ended up sick and I ended up as an\u00a0\u201cOut of Town, Single Mom. \u201c<\/a><\/p>\n

This year we headed to Ocala (in the North central part of Florida) for a dance competition and convention.\u00a0 While I had a great time at the convention, there was unfortunately very little for hubby to do with the kids.\u00a0 Luckily our hotel had a very warm heated pool which we took advatange of, but aside from shopping and eating, there was little else for one parent and three little ones to do.<\/p>\n

Ocala is known for horseback riding, natural springs, cave diving and mountain biking but none of those are conducive to a 1:3 adult-child situation!\u00a0 Poor hubby was left with the kids for nearly two whole days while I was doing my dancing thing.<\/p>\n

Saturday he took them swimming in the morning, then we had lunch together.\u00a0 They ran a few errands (who doesn\u2019t love Home Depot in a different town?) and came back to watch the end of the dance competition.\u00a0 The girls liked the dancing but it was too much for a sleepy Doodle so hubby ended up driving him to sleep while the girls and I watched the awards.\u00a0 We hit Sonic for dinner (my favorite but the closest drive-in is 25 miles in the wrong direction from home) and then wandered around Barnes and Noble to dwindle down the time before bed.<\/p>\n

Sunday I had classes.\u00a0 During the morning classes, Doodle napped so hubby and the girls were stuck in the hotel room.\u00a0 We again had lunch together and hit Belk\u2019s department store (a southern classic we liked in Jacksonville that we don\u2019t have in our part of Florida) before I returned to classes.\u00a0 Hubby took the kids back to the hotel for a nap and we all went swimming before dinner.\u00a0 We headed to a local barbeque restaurant (can you believe we can\u2019t find barbeque we like in South Florida?) and then back to Barnes and Noble.<\/p>\n

\"0217140939\"<\/a>Hubby did get to go mountain biking on Monday (the whole reason he agreed to come along to Ocala in the first place!), leaving me alone with the three which actually wasn\u2019t so bad.\u00a0 We dropped him at the bike shop (after an impromptu play at the park since they told him the wrong opening time!) and headed to Hobby Lobby.
\nOh my goodness, how I love and have missed Hobby Lobby!\u00a0 The closest to me currently is 60 miles away but having grown up with one right around the corner, I know that no other fabric or craft store even comes close!<\/p>\n

\"SONY<\/a><\/p>\n

I went a little crazy on Valentine\u2019s (half off!), St. Patrick\u2019s Day, Easter and even Halloween decorations that I\u2019ve had trouble finding near home.\u00a0 (Though I saw they\u2019re opening a Hobby Lobby by hubby\u2019s office and I can\u2019t wait!)<\/p>\n

After Hobby Lobby we headed back to the hotel to swim and collect our last few things and then headed to McAlister\u2019s, one of my favorite restaurants from our Oklahoma time which we don\u2019t have in our home area either!\u00a0 After lunch we walked to the pet store and just wandered.\u00a0 Doodle loved the birds and the girls thought the mice running on the wheels were so funny!<\/p>\n

It\u2019s strange because looking back, we didn\u2019t really do anything all weekend, but I think we all still had a pretty great time (I\u2019ll have to check with hubby\u2026) and while I don\u2019t think we would choose to vacation in Ocala, at least while the kids are still little, it wasn\u2019t as terrible as I expected (I had envisioned hubby and 3 children frazzled and losing their minds by the time I returned each day!)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I guess we\u2019ve started a tradition of boring Valentine\u2019s\/President Day weekends.\u00a0 Last year we headed to Jacksonville where hubby had meetings at our Alma Mater and though we had intentions of big adventures, hubby ended up sick and I ended up as an\u00a0\u201cOut of Town, Single Mom. \u201c This year we headed to Ocala (in […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13,12],"tags":[71,68,69,70,67,49],"class_list":["post-3208","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-a-mommys-life","category-tiny-travellers","tag-florida","tag-hobby-lobby","tag-mcalisters-deli","tag-ocala","tag-shopping","tag-travel"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beyondmommying.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3208","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beyondmommying.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beyondmommying.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beyondmommying.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beyondmommying.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3208"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.beyondmommying.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3208\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3213,"href":"https:\/\/www.beyondmommying.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3208\/revisions\/3213"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beyondmommying.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3208"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beyondmommying.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3208"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beyondmommying.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3208"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}