Last time you read about our adventures to Florida, I was sun burnt. I am happy to report I am now a nice tan color instead. More has happened in the last two weeks than my skin changing colors though.

National PBL competition ended with a big awards ceremony where Cole got a third in his competition, and a fifth with Matt and Jay. Woo! Nebraska ended up winning quite a few awards by the end of the night. Go Huskers, I suppose.

After Orlando, Cole and I started our honeymoon out in Tampa and stayed on Treasure Island. Our adventures here consisted of walking the shelly beach and playing a round of mini gold, which I lost. Sadly, a lot of our beach adventures were foiled by rain and lightning.

Next on our trip, we stayed in Bonita Spring with Aunt Carol. It was great to see her again and visit her in Florida. Bonita Springs is a nice place right along the shore. We got to hear about her worldly travels and help her figure out her new computer. Thank goodness I have some Mac experience. We stayed at her place, which was a nice change from the hotels. We stayed there two days, so we had a full day of fun with no driving. Our first adventure there was kayaking. We had researched that the state park had kayaking, so we headed to Lovers Key State Park for a morning of kayaking. Out on the little island, a water way is cut back and forth through the land, creating a kayaking adventure five miles long. The park lady told us that they had seen manatee recently, and that they would probably come right up to our kayak if we saw them. So we started our adventure quite hopeful of seeing wildlife. By the end of our five miles, the other wildlife we saw were some birds, jumping fish and a million mosquitoes. Thankfully the mosquitoes stayed away when we were in our kayak, but Cole had the great idea of exploring. So we pulled our kayak up on the bank, but as soon as we were out of the water, the mosquitoes swarmed us. Let's just say when I got back in the kayak, I was covered with huge red welts because my body has an allergic reaction to the bites. We survived though. And then we headed to Fort Myers beach to grab some food and swim in water that had fewer shells on the beach. We concluded our evening with dinner at Carrabba's with Aunt Carol and another game of mini golf. Luckily, we ended up playing on Wacky Wednesday, which meant we got to play as many games as we wanted for $5. I even won the second game. I think all my photo taking threw him off his game. The next day we left to Miami.

Welcome to Miami. Sadly, Miami didn't welcome us. It was pouring rain and lightning on our suppose to be fun evening at the beach. So instead, we walked along Ocean Drive and ate at an crazy restaurant. That night we tried to find some night life, but it seemed to be hiding. We finally gave up and danced at the one place we found that we could actually get into. The next morning we delayed our departure to Daytona with a little swimming in Miami. We decided that was the best beach for swimming. The sand wasn't shelly, the water was calm and clear and the warmest of all the beaches we visited.

Daytona meant race day! Nationwide Series for NASCAR. Cole wasn't sure how exciting it could be, but I love NASCAR so we went. Thanks, Cole. :) We got there and got to see the qualify laps for the Sprint Cup the next day. Finally, the Subway Jalapeno 250 started. The air smelled of gas and rubber, the stands shook from the roar of the engines, and the cars drove super close to each other. You see it on tv, but the bump drafting is much closer in person. Through out the race, the leaders kept changing and we had our driver cheat sheet out trying to keep up. There were a few little wrecks, which took out the two Kansas drivers, Clint Boyer and some other girl. But the last wreck was a big one right in front of it. On the last lap, one car went sideways right near the finish taking out a bunch of cars, including the people who had been leading most of the night. Fire, smoke and burnt rubber ended the race, leaving Joey Logano as the race leader. Even though you can't always tell what is going on when you are at the races, it is by far the more interesting way to watch the race.

Now out journey home begins. We actually decided to go to Daytona beach before we left. At Daytona, you can actually drive and park on the beach, so we ended up doing that. Funny thing. As we parked and got out, the people next to us asked about the Jayhawk on the front of my car (not a common sight in Florida). It turned out that she went to KU and he went to UNL. Just like us. After meeting them, we went and walked along the beach. The waves brought in cold water at this beach, so it wasn't might favorite. We continued on that day to Fort Matanzas near St. Augustine. Cole finally got some history. It was a fun, free little trip on our way back.

Then we drove. And drove. And drove. On most of our driving days, we got into the hotel really late. We aren't morning people so we couldn't seem to get our bodies moving in the morning to get ourselves to our destinations any sooner. We stayed in Nashville on the way home, and then made it back to Lincoln on July 3.

Phew! Yes, we did a lot. But we wanted to see a little bit of everything. Maybe for a vacation in the future we might stay in place and relax, but I am guessing we will probably pack it with lots of activities. We like being busy and having fun.

To check out picture from our trip, check them out on Facebook or click here!

Thanks for reading about our journeys. We had a great time. Can't wait for more!