The Saturday Following Discharge
My surgery and weeklong aftercare appointments are complete! My next time in the office will be in January for my 3-month follow-up. We could have went back home as soon as my Friday appointment was finished, but I wanted to give myself some time to ease back into travel and enjoy a few more days in Saint Petersburg, specifically Halloween. In Ohio, we don’t live anywhere with trick-or-treaters, and as this is our daughter’s first year to really enjoy the season, we wanted to experience a neighborhood that goes all-out for the holiday.
Originally I was planning on handing out candy to trick-or-treaters from our Airbnb, but after this weekend, I’ve decided to take the kids out on Halloween. We visited one of the neighborhoods that are known for their decorations, and it changed my mind on what I wanted to do Halloween night.
Saturday morning, 10/28, I woke up and did my stretches, heating regimen, etc. and had my morning coffee.
It was the last day my parents were going to be in town to help us with the kids, so we wanted to do something fun. We decided to take the kids to a Halloween event at the Great Explorations Children’s Museum. Instead of enjoying the festivities, my daughter, Esmé, decided to throw a tantrum whenever we tried to get her to a different exhibit so other kids could enjoy what she’d just been doing. My son, Mackenzie, looked around with indifference and when invited to pet a bearded dragon by one of the docents, he hit it. So, we quickly got out of there and decided this outing was just not meant to be.
I had been getting smoothies from Soho the past week, and am in love with their Purple Haze one. If you ever have the chance, I highly recommend this smoothie. I also love dragonfruit, so if you’re not a fan of that, you probably won’t enjoy it.
After Esmé took a much needed nap, we regrouped and decided to visit the Old Northeast neighborhood to check out the decorations. We had such a great time and were NOT disappointed. The houses in this area are in the millions on Zillow (and it shows) and they go all out for the holiday. If I ever have the money to move here, I will. Everyone we passed on the street were extremely friendly, the neighborhood was beautiful, and I couldn’t get over the varied architecture from house to house.
Residents were out putting up the final touches of their displays (apparently they have a community contest) and some of these looked like they could have been done by special effects teams. My favorite house had a cornfield in the front with aliens (including one in the upstairs window) and UFOs, one actually moving up and down every so often while the other on that had “landed” would expel gas while it lit up.
Other houses that caught my eye were a “Hotel California” themed residence, one which made a pretty cool Monsters Inc. display, and of course an all-out Beetlejuice house, complete with a giant sandworm. I also enjoyed a really well done Monster Mash display and Jurassic Park theme that someone was putting the finishing touches on. I’ve got photos of some and videos of others, so when we go trick-or-treating on Tuesday I’ll try to get photos of the houses I missed or couldn’t get good screen grabs from the videos I took.
We also ran into a possum on the sidewalk that my mom thought was a decoration. I had to explain possums don’t carry rabies and are just scared of us, so we waved at it, I took some photos, and we walked on. It was very cute and I’m glad I made its acquaintance.
We were also followed by a cute cat and then after a few blocks I think it went back home. Our family soon followed suit, and packed up our SUV to go back to the Airbnb. We finished packing some of the stuff my parents would be bringing home with them since not everything will be able to fit in our vehicle on the way back. My parents were leaving early the next morning, so I knew there was no way I would be awake; after thanking them for helping out with the kids for the past two weeks (there was no way Tate and I could have done it without them) I hugged them and wished them safe travels back to Ohio. We’ll see them next weekend sometime once we’re back home, but for the rest of the time here, it will be me and Tate with the kids. Wish us luck. 😂
