Megan on the shuttle bus out to our terminal at Dulles
Pictures from our Spring Break trip to Cocoa Beach, Florida, April 2007.
Category: vacation
The day we came home from Florida was pretty uneventful. We got up, had breakfast, finished doing laundry and packing, and tidied up a bit. My mother and stepfather were scheduled to come down 3 days after we left, so I washed the sheets and then remade the beds (I bet they would have liked to have known that *before*!). Our flight was scheduled for 4:30pm, so being an hour away from the airport, we left around 1pm. On the way out of town, we stopped at the post office to mail Megan’s postcards – yes, we’re those people who mail postcards on the very last day, knowing full well that we will beat them home. At least we mailed them from Florida!
All morning long, my right shoulder continued to bother me. Driving to the airport wasn’t too bad, but by the time we got there, turned in the rental car, and passed through security, it was really starting to flat-out hurt. As we walked through the terminal, I noticed that it was raining for the first time since we’d been in Florida. How sweet is it that the state of Florida cried when we left? 
We were about 2 hours early for our flight, so we got some lunch, then headed down to our gate. We were so early that the flight scheduled out of our gate *before* ours hadn’t even left yet. Eventually, it was our turn to board.
Being scheduled for boarding group C, we were among the last to board the plane. If you’ve ever flown Southwest with another person, you know that this means – with the lovely ‘open seating’ policy of theirs – that it is *very* difficult to find two seats together. Megan and I were not able to sit next to each other, but luckily I found two aisle seats directly across from each other. I’m not sure what I would have done if we’d had to sit in two different sections of the plane. We *had* to be near each other, otherwise when the plane split in two after going 1000 miles off-course somewhere near Fiji, we’d wind up crash-landed on two separate parts of the island….Oh wait. That’s Lost. Nevermind.
The flight crew on the way home wasn’t nearly as entertaining as on the way down, and we just got the regular “your seat is a flotation device” speech. Boring! The flight itself was ok, but there seemed to be a lot more turbulence than we had experienced on the previous flight. Fun, fun, fun! At one point, when we were still maybe an hour out of Dulles, I looked over the two people next to me and through the 1/4 inch of window that I could see, and noticed – hey, that’s another plane over there! Hey, it looks like it’s flying in the same direction that we are! Oh hey, does anyone else seem to think that it’s getting closer to us??? I watched nervously – because that’s what I do – and about 5 minutes later felt our plane descend suddenly by what felt like a few thousand feet. I guess someone else finally noticed the other plane!
By the time our plane landed, my right arm was sheer agony. If I moved it even the slightest bit, it felt like bits of broken glass were grinding around in my shoulder. I still could not think of anything at all that I might have done to cause it trauma. How strenuous is lying on the beach?
My brother met us at the baggage claim area, and we sat down by the carousel that showed our flight number. We waited for what seemed like a really long time, and nothing came around, despite the fact that 2 or 3 flights were listed for that pickup area. Then, I just happened to turn around and see a bag that looked just like one of mine pass by at the next carousel over. And another one. And a third. Apparently someone didn’t know the difference between the numbers “13” and “14”, and had posted our flight at the wrong baggage claim area.
Bags finally in hand, we made our way out of the airport. The second I walked out the door, I was ready to turn around and walk back in, book another flight the heck out of here, and go back to Florida. It was COLD and CLOUDY and WINDY. Ugh.
We made it home alive. My cat acted like she was extremely happy to see me – for all of about 10 seconds or so. After that she completely ignored me. Typical. Megan and I were both exhausted, and because we came back on Easter Monday, we had school and work the next morning, so we went to bed pretty early. Unfortunately for me, going to bed was not synonymous with going to sleep.
I had taken 3 advil, but my shoulder at this point was just a screaming mass of pain. There was no position that provided any relief or comfort, and every time I moved, it was agony. I’m one of those people who can’t lie in the same position for more than 5 minutes at a time anyway, so needless to say, I didn’t get a whole lot of sleep that night. The next morning I had to call my boss and tell her that yes, I know I just got back from a week-long vacation…but would be out just one more day so I could go to the doctor and have my right arm amputated. Sure, I’d be there on Wednesday, no problem.
I had to have my mom come pick me up and take me to the doctor’s office, because there was no way I could drive my car. Just getting dressed for the appointment took me quite a long time. My primary doctor – after looking at me like I was crazy when I insisted that no, I had not done anything to injure myself, it was like this for no reason! – called and got me an emergency appointment with an orthopedist. An hour and a half and a shot of cortisone later, my inflamed-for-no-good-reason rotator cuff was feeling slightly better. I could at least sit without wanting to scream. We met my stepfather – who had gone to pick Megan up from school because we didn’t think we’d make it from the doctor’s office in time – and transferred her to our car. After a quick stop at Giant to get my prescription filled, we were on our way back home. I crawled directly into bed for a nap before the cortisone wore off.
The next day, my shoulder was still sore and had this strange ‘loose’ feeling – almost like if I moved it the wrong way or too quickly, it would pop out of the socket. BUT…the pain was much, much better, so I went to work. The day after that, it felt almost completely normal. It was a good thing, too, because I was starting to wonder how strange I was going to look if I had to walk down the aisle in my sister’s wedding a week later if I was unable to move or use my right arm!
And that, my friends, is Our Trip to Florida! The End!
I’ve been telling this vacation story for so long now, I no longer care (and barely remember!) how it ends. I suppose I should just get it over with already. Our last full day in Cape Canaveral can be summed up in just a few words: Easter, Evanescence, Cadbury, beach, dolphin, Mexican, crane, seashell, pool, Sunset, packing, shoulder. There. Got it?
Megan woke up that Easter Sunday morning to find a new Evanescence necklace in her Easter basket. (Ok, so it was really a cereal bowl with a couple of Cadbury cream eggs and the necklace in it, but, hey, we were on vacation and had to improvise!)
After breakfast (mmmm….chocolate!) we headed down to the beach. Megan actually let us spend about 2 hours just soaking up the sun and enjoying the wildlife (which seemed to be running rampant that day). First, I noticed a dorsal fin travelling up the coast line. I grabbed my camera and went down to the water for a closer look.
As I watched, he would disappear for a few moments, then reappear a little closer. At one point he actually leaped out of the water as if he were performing at Sea World, no more than 30 feet away from me. Unfortunately, my photography skills aren’t quite as spectacular as the dolphin’s jumping skills, so the only photo I managed to get of him is above. Frankly, I was amazed I got that!
As I returned to my towel after Flipper’s photo shoot, I noticed an Hispanic man with his camcorder, also trying to get a good shot. He said something to me in Spanish, and me, having worked with native Spanish-speakers for over 2 years, of course had absolutely no idea what he was saying. Eventually I managed to deduce that he was asking if the thing in the water was a dolphin.
With the excitement over with for the moment, Megan and I returned to our sunbathing. It wasn’t long, however, before the second act began. This time the lead role was played by a crane. At least I think it is a crane.
This huge bird landed on the beach nearby and decided to stay. He was *quite* interested in the bucket of bait seen in this picture. Every time the fisherman and his wife would get out of their chairs and walk away, he would get closer and closer. When they would return, he would suddenly turn his head as if to say, “What bucket? I don’t care about what’s in your bucket!” It was pretty comical.
Eventually Mr. Crane lost interest in the bucket and wandered off down the beach. I took a few moments to use my cell phone to send a photo to my mother, who was with the rest of my family having Easter dinner. I call it “Toe’s Eye View.”
As Megan began to make her preliminary grumblings to indicate that she’d almost had her fill of the beach, my Hispanic friend approached once again from where he’d wandered down the beach. He walked right up to me, said something in Spanglish that I once again did not understand in the slightest, and handed me a sea shell. It was a cute little spiral shell, almost completely intact, maybe about an inch in length. I thanked him as best I could, hoping against hope that I didn’t somehow agree to marry him or anything without realizing it, and he went on about his way. A few minutes later, Megan made the official request that we move to the pool. Amazed to get as long at the beach out of her as I did, I decided not to push it, and we moved.
We spent another 1 1/2 – 2 hours at the pool before heading upstairs. We showered and got ourselves cleaned up at some point and wound up at the Sunset Cafe, a restaurant on the Banana River, for dinner. I took a couple of pictures during the 5 minute wait for our table to be ready:
Dinner was ok, but not quite as nice as the view. After dinner we went back to the condo to begin the sad task of preparing to come home. I spent the rest of the evening doing laundry, packing a little, and watching tv. Doesn’t sound too strenuous, right? As I laid on my bed in between laundry loads, balcony door open to let in the sound of the ocean, I began to notice that my right shoulder was sore…
Saturday, April 7th was Day 5 of our trip. After our busy day on Friday, we pretty much took it easy. Once breakfast was out of the way, we went to play a game of miniature golf. The weather was only in the high 60’s/low 70’s, but with the sun out and not a cloud in the sky, it felt great! Try as we might, neither of us managed to get any holes in one, though.
I snapped a couple of pictures in between holes, until Megan yelled at me to stop taking her picture. Well, who else am I supposed to be taking pictures of????
When Megan was younger and we would play, she would always be so pleased when we’d add up our scores at the end and hers would be higher than mine. Unfortunately, she’s now figured out that this means she lost the game, so it just ticks her off.
After our game, we walked around Historic Cocoa Village on the Indian River. It’s a cute little village (on the Indian River, oddly enough), with lots of shops and restaurants to explore. As we walked by the Porcher House, they were setting up chairs out front for a wedding.
It reminded me that my sister’s wedding was coming up fast on April 21st and I hadn’t yet begun to write my Maid-of-Honor’s-Speech for the reception! Oh no!!
Megan’s not too big on shopping in stores that don’t sell black clothing and chains, so I didn’t get the opportunity to walk around quite as long as I’d like. After lunch and an hour or so of browsing, we returned to the condo to relax for the afternoon.
After dinner we went to the one place that you absolutely *have* to visit when you’re in the Cape Canaveral/Cocoa Beach area: Ron Jon Surf Shop. This famous landmark claims “one of a kind” status, which Megan and I found to be pretty funny, considering there is now another surf shop that looks very much like Ron Jon, right across the street. Ah well…
Cheer up folks, there’s really only one day left!!!
My daughter has finally stopped spewing uncontrollably from both ends (she’s down to one end only, and not nearly so frequent), so I have a chance at last to think about something other than, “What do I need to clean next?” We now return to our regularly scheduled blog, already in progress…
Day 4 in Florida: Universal Studios
We picked a great day to go to this theme park in Orlando – it was sunny and warm, with temperatures in the low 70’s. Great weather for standing in line, which as you all should know, you tend to do a lot of when you go to a theme park. We got there around 10am, parked, and made our way through City Walk, an assortment of stores, restaurants, and clubs outside the two theme parks, Universal Studios and Islands of Adventure. Megan even took a little time to ride a wave…
I chose Universal Studios for 2 reasons. First, my daughter is not a big fan of ‘rides,’ more specifically, she does not like thrill rides. Rollercoasters, anything that flings you upside-down and sideways – basically all of the fun stuff – she wants absolutely nothing to do with. That meant Busch Gardens in Tampa was out. We’ve been to Disney and Sea World before, so there was no point going there again. The rides at Universal are more about special effects, and not so much about speed, so I thought Megan would enjoy them. The second reason I chose Universal Studios was because of Fear Factor Live.
Megan is a *huge* fan of the show Fear Factor. She loves to watch the stunts, the challenges, the disgusting things they eat – the whole, mealy, wriggling, worm-filled enchilada. When I first asked Megan if she wanted to spend her Spring Break in Florida, her response was an emphatic, “No!” When I pointed out that Universal Studios is in Florida, and one of the attractions at Universal Studios is called “Fear Factor Live,” well, then she was singing a whole different tune.
So needless to say, that was one of the first things we did at Universal Studios. While the stunts weren’t quite as exciting as the ones on tv, they put on a good show, using actual park visitors as contestants. Megan enjoyed it immensely.
Over the course of the day we rode Shrek 4-D, Twister, Earthquake, Jaws, ET, Men in Black Alien Attack, and saw the shows “Fear Factor Live” and “Animal Actors”. Everything had a wait, of course, but nothing was too terribly long.
Unfortunately, the Back to the Future ride closed down permanently about a week or so before we got to Florida. The train from the third movie and the delorean from all three movies were still there, but we were unable to see the full exhibit.
The best wait we had was while in line for the Earthquake ride. Someone pulled out a beach ball and started the biggest volleyball game I’ve ever seen. Everyone standing in that section of the line was playing, and it really made the wait fly by. At one point I was trying to take a picture of the action with my phone, and I missed the ball as it landed at my feet! Oops!
After a full day of riding, we made our way back to the front of the park, taking pictures along the way. I finally convinced Megan to take the camera for a moment, just so I could prove I really was on the trip with her. It’s a little blurry, but it’s me!
This next picture is really neat (at least I think it is!). It looks like its a replica of the New York Public Library, when in fact, it (along with the buildings behind it) is a painting on a flat wall.
As the sun set, we made our way back to the car, and began our hour-long ride back to Cape Canaveral. It was a long, but fun day!
Day 3 (Thursday) found me awake at the ungodly hour of 6:45 am. Realizing that this might be my only opportunity to get some pictures of the sun rising over the ocean, I grabbed the camera and stepped out onto the balcony. (Notice the silly people down there already fishing at 6:45!)
Not quite there yet:
Just peeking over the horizon:
And here we have it:
And just one closeup before going back to bed:
I tried, but never got back to sleep that morning. Eventually I gave up and got out of bed. We had breakfast and lounged around for awhile before heading down to the beach.
As I lounged on my towel trying to work on my tan, Megan headed down to the water to get her toes wet. After a few minutes I heard, “MOM! I saw a stingray!” Uh…yeah Megan, ok, sure. I gave the “Ok, whatever you say” mom nod…you know, the one that moms give when they’re not really listening to what you’re saying – or when they believe that what you’re saying is a total load of baloney. As I’m watching the water, though, I see something flopping around pretty close to the shoreline. I grab my camera and join Megan…
Huh…guess she was right! Turns out, there were several small stingrays in the water. According to a gentleman who was fishing nearby, he had been seeing them all day.
After that little adventure, I returned to my towel. Megan let me have maybe another 15 minutes (for a grand total of 30!!!) before asking if we could go to the pool.
After the pool we went back to the condo, showered, and dressed. We drove around town a little bit until we found the local mall. After flying how-many-miles down to Florida, where do we end up? At the Hot Topic. Woohoo! Luckily, Megan had spent most of the money she’d brought with her buying the DVD “eragon,” so she didn’t have enough left over to buy the ugly black pants with all the chains on them. We found a pair of Adidas flip-flops that she deemed acceptable (she decided that she hated the pair she’d brought with her – doesn’t like the feeling of the thong between her toes), bought them, and then went home to make dinner. We relaxed for the rest of the evening in preparation for the next days’ events – Day 4: Universal Studios!
I really shouldn’t have waited until the night before we left Florida to finish writing down what we did each day, because as usual, my CRS (that’s Can’t Remember Shit for the uninformed) kicked in, and it got to be hard to remember what we did on which day. I *think* this is how Day 2 went.
I got up around 9am on Day 2 to find that Megan was already awake and dressed (as usual!). After breakfast we decided to take a walk on the beach, because SOMEONE had put the idea in my daughter’s head that she had to make sure I walked on the beach at least 30 minutes each day. Ha! Anyway…on our way to the beach, we admired some of the flora:
And the fauna:
Now, after our walk on the beach is when everything gets a little fuzzy. Maybe I had sunstroke. Yeah, that’s it. Sunstroke!
I am pretty sure that after the beach we went shopping for some more “beach appropriate” clothing for Megan. Seems the only things she’d packed to wear were jeans, and 1 pair of gym shorts. We managed to find a pair of board shorts that she would agree to wear (black, of course!), and a tank top. Rather than make her more comfortable in the warm temperatures, however, all this seemed to do was guarantee that the weather turned cooler for the remainder of our trip.
We also found the local Walmart (who can survive in a new town without pinpointing that particular landmark??), and bought a purple DVD player for $30. I’m not sure why, but upon discovering that the condo did not have a DVD player, it suddenly became imperative that we have one as soon as possible. We watched exactly 2 movies while on vacation.
I’m fairly sure that after breaking in the new DVD player on Wednesday afternoon (Day 2) with the movie “eragon”, we went to the pool. Thank goodness the water was heated, because the sun was going down, and it was breezy and cool outside of the water.
Later that evening, I once again noticed a nearly-full, blood red moon through the open balcony door, and this time I actually remembered that I brought a camera with me! The pictures didn’t turn out great, but I think it actually looks like the moon.
That’s Day 2 in a nutshell. Tune in tomorrow for Day 3!
Is there anything quite so depressing as coming home from a vacation?? Well, yes, how about coming home from a vacation spot where it is sunny and warm every day to a place where you have to wear a COAT?!!? I walked out of Dulles airport on Monday evening, got a blast of cold air, and very nearly turned around, walked back in – credit card in hand – and bought 2 tickets back to sanity. Why not? We were already packed! What is going on up here? It’s nearly mid-April, and this morning it wasn’t even 30 degrees outside. I know winter had a late start, but enough is enough already. Where is spring??
Anyway…
I will now depress myself even more by dedicating the next couple of blogs to our vacation adventures.
Day 1: The Departure
When we left our house last Tuesday, April 3rd, it was a fairly sunny day, with temperatures in the 50’s. My mother drove us from our home in Elkridge, Maryland down to Dulles International Airport in Somewhere, Virginia. I made a mental note at that time to never, ever, ask my mother to drive us anywhere again. Ever. (She’s leaving for Florida herself tomorrow, so hopefully by the time she gets back on the 26th she’ll have forgotten that she wants to hit me after reading this…) She has a self-professed dislike of driving on highways, so when you pair that with an abysmal sense of direction and the constant griping between her and my stepfather over which lane she should be in…let’s just say, by the time we hit the American Legion Bridge, I was ready to just get out and walk the rest of the way!
We got to the airport at around 11:15am for a 1:30pm flight. It took 5 minutes to check our luggage with the skycap, I had printed our boarding passes from home, so we bypassed the check-in counter, and all of 47 seconds to get through security. (Megan was extremely worried that her braces would set off the alarms, but the guard told her, “Just keep your mouth closed and don’t sing, and you’ll be fine.” lol) This left us with, oh, a good 2 hours to kill before our flight. We rode the big bus over to our terminal, got some doughnuts for a late breakfast, and sat down to wait.
We managed to get a row to ourselves towards the back of the plane, despite Southwest’s “free-for-all” method of boarding. They apparently don’t believe in assigning seats, just assigning you to one of 3 boarding groups. The preflight speech was pretty interesting – you gotta love a flight crew with a sense of humor! Here are some of the highlights:
- “If at any time during the flight you are dissatisfied with our service, there are 8 exits conveniently located throughout the plane…”
- “For those of you traveling with small children today…sorry. What *were* you thinking?”
- “So sit back, relax – or lean forward and be tense, it’s up to you – and enjoy the flight.”
Our take-off was uneventful (i.e. we didn’t crash!), and when the pilot made the “it’s ok to use electronics now” announcement, Megan had her CD player halfway out of her bag before he finished the sentence. You can’t have a flight without Evanescence, of course. Everyone knows that! I took a page from her book and got out my mp3 player. I tried not to let the fact that “Ironic” by Alanis Morrisette was the first song to come up in the random sequence.
Mr. Play-It-Safe was afraid to fly
He packed his suitcase, kissed his kids goodbye
He waited his whole damned life to take that flight
And as the plane crashed down, he thought, “Well isn’t this nice?”
And isn’t it ironic…don’t you think?
He packed his suitcase, kissed his kids goodbye
He waited his whole damned life to take that flight
And as the plane crashed down, he thought, “Well isn’t this nice?”
And isn’t it ironic…don’t you think?
As soon as that verse began and I realized where it was headed, I skipped to the next song.
The rest of the flight went pretty smoothly – as smoothly as it can when one person has to hold a large metal object full of people in the air with the power of their mind for two hours, anyway – and by 4:30pm we were in Orlando, Florida.
One cobalt blue Chevy Cobalt and an hours’ drive later, we were in Cape Canaveral.
I immediately headed out to the balcony of the third floor oceanfront condo to take some pictures of the view:
And:
The balcony:
We spent the rest of the evening just settling in. After unpacking, we went to the grocery store to stock up for the week, then watched a little tv before turning in early. The moon was huge and red and full as it rose over the ocean, and I enjoyed watching it through the open balcony door from my bed. It didn’t occur to me to get out the camera and try to take pictures until the next night.
Tune in tomorrow for Day 2.
After approximately 1:30 pm tomorrow, I will be incommunicado for a week as my daughter and I take a much-needed (for me, anyway!) vacation to Cape Canaveral, Florida. The picture above is a screen shot from Google Earth of the condo where we will be staying. (X marks the spot – note the proximity to the ocean!!!)
I don’t have a laptop, so I will have no computer for the week. I’ll be able to check email and chat somewhat through my cell phone, but I can only stand to ‘type’ on the telephone keypad but so much, so I doubt I’ll be doing too much of that. Forget blogging – the 2 paragraphs that I’ve typed so far would take about an hour to type on my phone.
I have a feeling the first day or two won’t be so bad, but by day 3 I will probably be like a junkie looking for a fix….what did we do before there was internet? How will I check the weather reports to decide which is the best day to visit Universal Studios? How will I get directions to whatever restaurant we decide upon for dinner? How will I play solitaire when I am bored? Or Sudoku?
Yes, I realize that all of these things can still actually be done without the benefit of a computer, but why would anyone want to?
So while you are all here just blogging your little hearts out, think of me, down on the beach in Florida, forced to put down my margarita to actually pick up a *pen* and write on *paper*….
See you next week!
Left-handed, blond Capricorns, untie! 