What did our parents do??

So yesterday we ventured out to explore more of what Florida has to offer us. We went to the Miami Seaquarium. It is like an aquarium, only it has sea animals. It is probably 1/4 of the size and quality of Sea World, but we didn't know the difference, so it was great to us. BUT the adventure to get there was a different story. I guess I will have to start by saying that our GPS out here is useless. We upgraded the wrong map last year so it pretty much only has midwest/west US on there and doesn't even recognize most of Florida. So I research directions to get to the seaquarium and it is about 45 minutes away if I take a lot of toll roads. Google didn't say there was another option, so I decide we are going that way. We eat lunch and leave our place at about 12:30. I get on the Turnpike going South and am feeling pretty confident.. Then the dreaded fork in the road. I can go straight or go left and my written directions don't say anything about this! I call Dan and ask him what he thinks and he says go left. I go left and then I start to doubt my decision.. I get off the turnpike and figure, I will just get back on going the other way and go the other way in the fork. Well apparently the turnpike is not like a freeway where you can get back on at the same point you get off. I am now in ghetto-ville with houses that have their windows boarded or barred up, steel iron gates all over their yards and these little box houses that look deserted, but I know just aren't taken care of. eeeek! I am looking everywhere for a busy road with businesses or something that is public and populated.. finally I find a gas station and I call Dan again. He looks up where I am on his iphone and tries to direct me back to the turnpike. I get back on the turnpike, but have no clue where I am on it now because I back tracked a little bit.. I call Dan to ask him how far south I am and my phone's battery is now dead. Here come the tears.. but wait, Bailee is in the car and will freak out if I start to cry so I hold them in and say a little prayer to help me be strong. I continue on the turnpike until the next toll booth and I decided to ask the worker where the seaquarium was and she did not know what i was talking about! She just kept saying "turnpike south. this is turnpike south." Thanks, lady. so I continue until the next toll booth and this worker is much more helpful. He told me the next exit to take to go east and then my last exit should be right after that called Key Biscayne. So I exit to go east and I don't see any signs for Key Biscayne coming up..something doesn't feel right, again. I exit and find a Wendy's - the girls have to go potty, also. We are in the bathroom and this lady comes in so I ask her if she knows how to get there and she says her husband can tell me step by step if I find them when we are done in the bathroom. We go out there and he tells me I still need to get on the I95 going south. I guess the toll booth guy forgot that little detail. That is the freeway that the exit Key Biscayne is on. So I find my way to I95 south and see Key Biscayne exit.. but there are 3 Key Biscayne exits. I take the Key Biscayne Blvd exit and it is beautiful and looks amazing, but I see no signs for the seaquarium. I don't know how many times I have taken my phone out to try and call different people to see if they would know, and then I am reminded of its deadness. I find a Burger King drive thru and ask the worker if she knows, and she says she has no idea. I find a Checkers drive thru and ask that worker, and then all three workers come and start spewing out what to do .. umm so I need to get back on I95 and take that last key biscayne exit that is called Rickenbacker Causeway and that will bring me right to it. So I do it, and we finally arrive on the breathtakingly gorgeous island named Key Biscayne. We pull into the parking lot of the Miami Seaquarium at 3:30!!! 3 hours!! wow. Well I spoke to someone there about our route to get back, and they told me that I can take the I95 all the way north to our dear Coral Springs. WHAT??? just one freeway will get me back to where I want to be. Why didn't Google tell me that?? so I got back just fine with no stress and no asking for directions along the way. How did my parents navigate there way on vacations with no GPS or cell phones?? I felt soo helpless and at the mercy of whoever was giving me directions. Here are pictures of what we drove 3 hours to see!

This was what Bailee really wanted to see.. the killer whale! She also wanted to sit in the front row and we got soaked with salt water!

This was while we were trying to dry off. I asked Bailee why she was making that face and she said because it is what the crocodile was doing!

Bailee's favorite bird is the flamingo because they are pink. Afon wanted to know why they only stand on one leg and I didn't know, so Bailee said "I think there leg has fallen asleep"
I had to get far away to get the parrots in the picture. Do you see them? They were very noisy!
We saw a Pelican! It kept eating the se lions treats. For some reason, I really like Pelicans this summer.
The dancing seal.. I am not very knowledgable on this subject, but the show said it was a sea lion and seal show.. I don't know the difference.
These were the dolphins in the tank. The girls really liked watching them swim right by! All in all, it was fun and it is good to know that next time I will get there in under an hour!