Vacation highlights

It was really nice to spend so much time with family. It's been a couple years and the last time we spent it with Sarah's family. I was worried that Dorothy's illness could derail our plans, but it all worked out and Dorothy is doing quite a bit better (and now has a new grandson). I guess the next trip is back to North Carolina.

The kids (our boys, my sisters daughter) really enjoyed being together, even if does seem to bring out the worst in some ways (they tend to get carried away). Somehow, Krissy was responsible for a reconciliation between Adam and Stephen (sometime after my aunt mentioned something about losing her cousin Bob whom she considered to be a brother). I don't know the details, but the boys talked outside and came back very happy. I'm grateful.

We started out by hitting Epcot and Disney World. I've written about Epcot elsewhere and we all enjoyed Disney. Using fast pass tickets and creative park placement, we hit all the major attraction high points in one day except for the Jungle Cruise (which we realized we'd missed on the way out). One of the personal highlights for me was going through It's A Small World again. The kids didn't care for it (and Fantasyland was a giant swarm of people which I was glad to escape) but I got it once again, in a way I hadn't as a young adult. I deliberately tried to see it as I had the first time around as a youngster at the Worlds Fair in New York, and found myself enchanted. It carries a simple, yet potentially powerful message. Space Mountain is no longer the amazing experience it was as a teenager, but I still wish that I'd been able to ride it several times and then spend about an hour wandering around inside by myself. The general effects are terrific and I would really like to know more about the starscape used on the domed ceiling. The only long line we hit was about forty minutes for Splash Mountain the first time around. Some of us got a little carried away with the silly music, but I think we all had a good time on both runs. Stephen was able to play a special DDR version and get points for a kids coaster he took Jonathan on (both are important to him somehow).

We ate enough for a two week vacation, but that's how it goes at times. I wanted to spoil the kids in Orlando and my aunts wanted to spoil all of us once we got back to their neck of the woods. We introduced the kids to teppan style food in Kissimmee, where we all had a pretty good time (Jon freaked out when they wanted to put vegetables on his plate and later declared it the best meal he'd ever had). For the most part we had seafood, seafood and more seafood. It was everywhere once we got back to the west coast (we stayed on Treasure Island). Everyone served Grouper in some fashion or another, but a little joint called Mulligan's serves an interesting variation: a Grouper Reuben (it sounds weird, but I enjoyed it). They also have a seared Ahi Tuna sandwich with wasabi mayo that's pretty good. My aunts took us to a little tiny place one night that had terrific crab cakes (using lump Maryland crab). Another night we went to Crabby Bills where Jon won a shirt in some kind of crazy Let's Make a Deal variation that they play.

It'll probably be a while before we get back to Florida again, but we certainly had a great trip this time around.