Vacation Time Down South!

I am going to try to do my family duty and continue with the family blog after a long hiatus.  So if you have been waiting a while for insightful comments and witty observations… ye shall hunger still.  Regardless, here you go.

The family just returned from our family vacations.  This year was southern Florida; can’t beat old folks and uthrough Interval (a great way to use the Marriott resorts at a fraction of the price – look into it).  The resort was the Marriott Beach Place Towers right on the beach.  I love these time shares because I get a full kitchen, two bed rooms, and two baths.  Really, is there nothing worse than coming from a long day of playing only to pack seven people into a hotel room for a “good” night's sleep (see the cruise portion of this post below)? 

Marriott Beach Place Tower

I went to BJ’s and bought a giant cart full of junk food: Oreos, Snickers ice cream bars, frozen pizzas, Cheesecake Factory cheese, etc.  The kids particularly liked the IBC root beer.  They seemed to like coming in from the beach and throwing back a cold one.

The first day we went to the Everglades on an airboat ride.  Despite Ronin’s best attempts, he came back with all limbs.  Those boats are load and every time the engine buzzed before the engine kicked in, Ronin would jump and plug his ears in a panic.  We saw a lot of gators and the kids had a blast.  Each of the kids got to hold a small gator and pose for a photo.

Locke having a reptilian snack.

Family on the airboat

 I managed to get some fun video of the airboat ride.

Ro Ro petting the "ada-gator."

The whole fam-damily

On the way back to our hotel we stopped by to see and old law school friend, “Uncle Mario.”  Mario was there to help us out during Locke’s whole traumatic birth.  We told the kids that Mario was born in Argentina and talks like Puss-n-Boots.  They were not disappointed.  Mario intrigued the kids with fund food and interesting stories.  Nothing a Mario’s bachelor’s pad was broken, we will call that a win.

Family at "Uncle Mario's" home

 After that bit of traveling we just hung out at the beach and swam at the pool.  Patrick did his best to pick up on chicks at the beach.  He me a few, but chick are a tricky bunch and his attempts at locating any of the girls on Facebook with the limited information he obtained were in vain.  He perhaps need to consult with his mother on proper Facebook stalking techniques.

The big three kids were pretty good on the boogie boards.  Ronin loved the water and had not fear, but unlike his older brother Patrick, he showed good better judgment in self preservation.  I taught kids Uno and after winning the first couple of games, the kids kicked my butt.  There were some places in the mall below the hotel with entertainment in the evenings.  So Adrienne and I decided go out for the evening.  We got dressed up went downstairs, and other than the Hooters, the places were all dead.  Despite Adrienne’s pleadings for chicken wings, we decided against Hooters.  Instead, we made a Slurpee run.  Nice evening.

Char going crazy on the body board.  Actually she was too sacred to actually use the thing.

 

When I booked this timeshare, I did not realize it was over school break.  This was nice for calendaring, but lousy for airfare prices.  To travel weekend to weekend was $500+.  If, however, we stayed an extra 4 days, the prices dropped to $215.  So a 12 day vacation seemed good to me.  But what to do?  After looking at the cost for a hotel room, rental car, and food, I realized that a three day cruise was a good option.  So we booked a 4 night Carnival cruise to the Bahamas!

After they kicked us out of the Marriott, we drove the family up to Port Canaveral and jumped on a ship.  Now for $200 per person, I was not expecting much.  It was and older and smaller ship (The Sensation), but it has just been remodeled.  I was impressed.  It was clean, had some good places to eat, and had a nice waterslide.  We had to book two separate rooms, one room for five people and one room for two.  When you book a cruise cabin for five, it is not a five-person cabin, it is a two person cabin (Adrienne and Ronin) that they will stuff five people into.  I had kids everywhere; kids above me, kids to the side of me, and kids below me.

These were not the same restful nights back in the Marriott.  First, I learned that all of four kids in my room talk in the sleep.  Patrick was the worst.  His ramblings were all so urgent and loud.  Second, all you can eat foods, produces lots of gas. In a small cabin we were all ducking for cover.  I decide to places a slinkiest kid that day on the top bunk nearest the vent each night.  Finally, every time a kids got up to use the toilet at night, one of them would clock their head a bunk.  They all walked away with a few dings on the foreheads.

Cruises are and interesting dynamic.  I could not help but notice how accurate Wall-e depicted the cruise people.  There were a couple of Jazzy cruisers who would run you down to get to the buffet.  I will follow up this post with a post on “Observations on a Cruise.”  The kids all had a great time.  The Bahamas were very nice and we had a great time.  I expect the people to be a bit more pushy and predatory on tourist.  Not at all.  We walked around Nassau and it was great.  They have a Pirate Museum, for which I had very low expectations, that was great.  The kids loved it and Adrienne did too (though I think that she just liked the brawny pirate out from who picked off and attempted to runoff with my “booty”).  We then caught local bus and crashed on the beach chairs of a local Sheraton.

"Hey get back with with me booty."  Adrienne for some reason has been watching pirate movies non-stop since then.

Family in Nassau

The Queen's Staircase.

The Big-3 with Mom in Freeport

That night, Patrick watched the kids and Adrienne and I went dancing.  Adrienne managed to choke down here self-image and let me “dance” near her.  I just hope the Humpty Dance is still in fashion.  We spent our last day at sea, eating, swimming, and water sliding.  We had and overall great time.

The trip went flawlessly until the trip home.  I booked us a 9:00 am flight home because of cost.  I thought we got off the cruise at 7:00 am.   Wrong, the ship arrived at 7:00 am and we were not allowed to leave until 8:30.  So alas, we did not make that flight.  Luckily, there was a flight with seats available at 1:15 pm.  We visited Downtown Disney and returned to the airport and hour early.  Unfortunately, the flight was delayed three hours.  We had to sit and wait.  That delay caused us to miss the bus back from the Boston airport.  Another 2-hour wait for the next bus. 

Kids at Downtown Disney waiting for our standby flight.

During the wait, I realized that I lost my credit card on the plane.  I called and cancelled that.  We finally loaded the kids on the bus and 9:00 pm for the 2 hour ride back to NH.  We got dropped off in the pouring rain at the Park-n-Ride in New London, where there is nothing but a few grazing moose nearby.  I went to truck to start it up and the battery was dead.  So the family waited in the little shed while some friends drove over and jumped started the truck.  We threw our luggage in the bed of my truck in the rain and put all seven of us in my six seat truck and finally got home, tired, wet, and happy to be in our own beds with not talking or tooting kids.

After all of the fun and craziness, I think the misses and I need a vacation for just the two of us.