Vacation, the sequel

April 3, 2011

Since everyone loves hearing about somebody else's vacation, here we go with vacation, part two.

The key to a great vacation, as it turns out, is not the attractions or the weather.  Sure, those are important, but who you are with is the key.  As I said yesterday, we had some bad weather days-total wash outs.  We were also trying some new things on this trip that we have never done before-different hotel, rental car, Cocoa Beach.

There were times when we did not know where we were going and got lost.   I prefer to look at a map and figure it out, like an adventure.  Beth prefers to Google or, GASP!, pull over and ask someone.  I am sorry dear, I am a dude,  we do not pull over and ask people which way to go.  Did Lewis and Clark have people to ask?  Would Daniel Boone have become famous if he could have just Googled how to traverse the Appalachians?  Did I not mention we were on an adventure?  And yes, I bet Daniel Boone did curse when he passed them same tree three times, but he did not let that slow him down. 

Unfortunately, I am finding it more difficult to read a map and drive, especially without my reading glasses.  There was one time when we were like three blocks from our hotel and could have just made one turn to get us there, but we panicked and turned around to go back to point A, ask for directions, and get to point B.  I may have grumbled a bit, especially when we got to the hotel and I figured out how close I was to getting us there without help.  It was as if Admiral Perry was within a couple miles of the North Pole when his wife talked him into going back to Canada and asking someone else how to get there.  Is any of that historically accurate?  Probably not.

Anyway, within a few minutes of being at the hotel, we were all once again joking around and speaking with one another.  I know other families who would not have liked each other again so quickly.

You also want someone like Beth with you on a trip when you are stuck in a hotel room all day.  If you are sitting on this weird couch all day and trying to figure out what is bothering you about it, you need someone to point out that it looks like something from a Dr Seuss book.  Let me see if I can find a picture since we never thought to take an actual photo.

https://www.marriott.com/hotels/photo-tours.mi?marshaCode=mcosw&pageID=HWGRD&imageID=0

I think this link is for the promotional photos of our hotel.  They are fairly accurate except they make everything, especially the pool, look a bit more glamorous than they are.  However, photo 5 almost shows the Dr Seuss couch,  The color and shape were a bit strange. 

Since these photos are now our vacation photos, you will see in photo 8 the very nice kitchenette we had.  This saved us mucho money on meals and Beth did not even almost catch the hotel on fire while fixing bacon.

Photo 10 is of the breakfast bar where we dined like swine every morning.  Good eats on the cheap. 

Photo 18 is the only thing I really wanted to do, but did not get the chance.  The weather did not cooperate enough to be both warm enough and sunny enough to lounge in the shallow end of the pool.  No skin cancer this trip.  Rats.

Photo 21 shows the basketball court where Beth and I watched CJ attempt a half court shot approximately 30 times before, "HE SHOOTS, HE SCORES!!  AND THE CROWD GOES WILD!!"  Fun to watch.  Weird to watch too as it dawned on me that my little boy is big enough to make a shot from half court.  Would someone find my walker with tennis balls on the bottom for me?

Nice vacation pix, huh? 

So the moral of my story, is that the reason we had such a good vacation, is that the three of us were there.  I have heard about people sitting in paradise who had a bad time because they did not get along.  Or a snake offered one of them an apple.  I think that was in Cancun, not sure.

We are off to the grocery now as we cleaned it out before we left.  Cannot live on, ironically, apples and ketchup.  Talk at you soon.