Saying Goodbye to Cal

Today was Cal's last day in Florida, so we let him pick what we did.  He decided that he wanted to see John Travolta's home in Ocala and then visit the University of Florida as he had never been to Gainesville.  We were excited about the idea as we loved Gainesville and thought it would be fun to see Jumbolair Aviation Estates since we had never been by the famed Hollywood actor's home.  We also suggested driving by Tom Petty's childhood home and eating lunch at our favorite burger place in Florida - Relish.

Everyone was able to sleep in this morning as we didn't need to leave our house until 10:30 a.m.  That also gave Doug time to work before we left.  We first stopped by the Florida Citrus Center as Brett and Cal had never been there.  They both thought that it was just as over the top as the rest of us, but were glad to see it for themselves.  From there we drove by Jumbolair Estates.  It was amazing to us to have this millionaire air park in the middle of rural Ocala.  We didn't see John Travolta's home, but could see from the entrance that it was a beautiful area.

The next stop on our trip was the childhood home of Tom Petty.  Cameron and I were a little disappointed that the large cardboard cut out of Tom Petty playing the guitar was no longer in the front yard.  Everyone else was a little surprised by its location, but happy to know where my favorite musician grew up.  Next, we drove to the University of Florida for a walk around campus.  Only Cameron and I had toured it before and were able to explain for the most part where everything was.  Everyone thought it was as beautiful as we did.  The brick buildings reminded them of Purdue, but they all agreed that the palm trees and green space were a lot prettier.  

Relish was right across the street from the dorms, so we stopped in for lunch.  Unfortunately, Cal and Doug were told that it was closed during Christmas break since the students were gone.  They were told to try the one downtown, so after walking by "The Swamp" and back to our car, we drove there next.  The owner was there and had seen Doug and Cal at the campus location.  He bought each of them a beer for remaining loyal to the restaurant.  We thought that was nice and followed their drink orders by picking out our favorite sandwiches for lunch.  Cal tried salmon and I got ground turkey, while everyone else chose a hamburger.  The food was perfect and everyone enjoyed it very much.

We could tell on Apple Maps that traffic to the airport was thick, so we decided to leave right after lunch.  We had parked the van at Cracker Barrel in Ocala so Doug could drop us before going to Orlando.  Unfortunately, the worst of the traffic was on I-75 from Gainesville to Ocala.  It looked like Cal would be cutting it close to his flight time, but thankfully, his plane was delayed forty minutes.  Thus, he got through security and still had an hour to get to his gate before his flight left.  I was very sad to see Cal leave, but incredibly thankful to have all of us together for the holidays.

While Cal and Doug were driving to Orlando, Brett, Cameron, Meg and I all went shopping.  We stopped at the vinyl store, Old Navy, Dick's, Kohls and Barnes & Noble before heading home.  Doug arrived a little bit after six and we all went to Cody's Roadhouse.  Brett enjoyed the steak place as much as we thought he would and everyone had a really nice meal.  It was definitely a fun way to end a busy day.