Our Summer Vacation ~2007

Last Day in Paradise... (UPDATE at bottom...ghost pic.. explained)

It is coming to an end... I started a long blog that I called "Anatomy of a Beach Vacation"... but I need more time to finish it... or maybe I will abandon it as we roll out of Seaside in the morning... who knows.

The past three days have been wonderful... pretty much exactly the same as the first three... pure blissful relaxation... yummy dinners of chicken piccata... morning coffee on the balcony... and beach beach beach. Some highlights include seeing a pod of dolphins about 50 yards from the shore... then Mr. D. seeing one very close up... like 10 yards... A huge thunderstorm while eating on the patio... taking trick pictures with the timer... banana splits... our "taditional "toe pic"... watching kids play on the beach... flying kites... reading 3 whole books and 6 magazines cover to cover... all of it... it has just been incredible.

We leave you with a few more vacation pics... tomorrow after breakfast we will drive the 8 hours in to Houston... stay the night... meet with Ally (one of my best online buddies) for lunch and then drive the 4 hours home. We should be back to our puppy and 3 kitty babies by dinnertime on Monday. I am looking forward to sleeping in my own bed.

So the next time I write I will just be a normal gal writing from my regular old life... but the past 2 1/2 weeks have reminded me what is truly important in my life... and that is being a normal gal in my regular old life.

See you in a couple of days!

Since several of you were interested... here is how we did the "ghost" pic... We figured it out totally by accident... and then perfected the technique with about a zillion tries! Our camera has a "night" setting to take really beautiful clear pics at night (I'll post some cool landscapes in a couple of days) anyway.. it takes about 8 seconds to snap the pic once you have pressed the button.. so you have to use a tripod so the picture isn't blurry.... but we don't have a tripod... so we were just sitting it on chairs or tables to sabilize it... and during one of the 8 second waits Mr. D. walked in front of the camera... and there it was... the ghost!!! So we practiced using the timer, a chair, and walking to the center of the picture kissing and the backing out.... about 10 kisses later we got the hang of it... we came out with 2 really cool pictures... and a couple of creepy ones where I look normal and Mr. D. looks like a ghost because he walked away on time and I didn't... So that is it... totally by accident... and then we just repeated the accident until we got it right! Pretty cool for 2 nerds who know nothing about photography.

PS... we made it to Houston and will be home tomorrow... after lunch with Ally!

Vacation Day... who knows... I've lost count

Just having a great time...

The last three days have been great...

9:00-9:30 - wake up and have coffee

9:30- 12:00 - lay on the beach...

12:00 - lunch on the beach...

12:30 - 4:00 - lay on the beach...

4:00 - 6:00 - Swim in the pool... shower... make out... nap... afternoon coffee...

6:00 - Dinner and dessert at some fabulous beach restaurant

7:00 - walk... or shop... or watch a concert or a play in the Seaside amphitheatre

9:00 - walk on beach... or watch TV... or take another dip in the pool

11:00 - fall exhausted in to bed...

Three more days of this schedule... not sure if I can make it... I might just turn into jello. (a bronzy pink colored jello...)

We were taking pictures of the sunset and figured out (after a year and a half...)that our camera has a cool timer.. so we experimented with it and got a couple of cute pics... we plan to try again later this week when we are dressed a little nicer... I might even try combing my hair... but don't count on it... I am at the beach for God's sake!!!!

ok.. so I've gotton behind...

Ok... I have been busy having fun and not updating like I should! I will try to catch you up on our trip...

Wednesday... We went out to lunch again with Grandma and then drove out as a trial run to see where the shuttle was taking off from at the Cape. We spent about 2 hours at the beach and then headed home. That night my cousin Brian took us out to a wonderful (and super expensive) dinner. I only mention the expense because Mr. D. and I do not usually spend a lot of $$$ on fancy dinners... so for my cousin to spend almost $300 on dinner was way over the top!!! I mean we had a cheese course, wine, salads, a $38 entree and dessert! It was wonderful but it is strange to let someone spend that much on you. But we had a lovely 3 hour dinner and awesome conversation! I really enjoy my cousin and his wife!

Thursday - A day at Disney. Now... I have to say this Disney is great... I love it... we go every year... BUT... we also have generous friends who work there and get us tickets... plus we have been there so many times we honestly don't care what we ride... or if we ride anything... we just like hanging out and enjoying the atmosphere. I say all of that to tell you... If you have never been to Disney World... Go! BUT do not go anytime in the summer!!!! It was so crowded there was no way a family could enjoy enjoy a trip. There were so many frustrated parents dragging their kids around waiting in 75 minute lines for every ride. I feel so sorry for the parents who save and save for years for this dream vacation just to find that about a million other people want the same perfect vacation! If you want the perfect Disney experience just make the decision to take the kids out of school and do it sometime between October and March (minus any school holiday breaks!). You will have your dream trip... and you will be able to do everything in 4 or 5 days... but trying to do it in the summer... well... I'll just say the people looked so disappointed. (But... all that said... had a great time flitting through the Magic Kingdom, Epcot, and Animal Kingdom... riding a total of 4 rides, seeing 1 show, 2 parades and the fireworks... all that in a 13 hour day. Yes... I have the blisters to prove it!

Friday - Whew we needed a day off. Another lunch with Grandma, then to Oceans 13 (very fun... very hot men!), and then off to the shuttle launch! We we across the cape from the shuttle (probably about a mile away) but you could see everything!!! We took our beach towels and sat with a ton of other people who came out to watch. Then it was time! I was so nervous... I really prayed for those astronauts! But the launch was beautiful! It was spectacular to see it go up and the the whole sky fill up will billowy while smoke! If you didn't see it you should go to the NASA site and watch it. I have heard there was some damage that they are repairing at the space station... so I am still praying that they make it home safe and sound. I am really glad that we went.

Saturday - We spent the day at Disney's Typhoon Lagoon water park. This day was very pleasant... it didn't seem overly crowed like the theme parks. We rode everything and the longest we waited way about 15 minutes. We came home early and spent our last evening at home with Grandma... she was in a storytelling mood which is rare and told me all about when she was a girl in the 1920's... no electricity... the great depression... the war... I could go on and on about her... but I will save those stories for another day... but the evening was so special and I will always remember the time we spent together that night.

whew...

Sunday... (today... finally...) We said goodbye to Grandma and Orlando and drove to Seaside. The drive took most of the day. We arrived at about 5:30, unpacked, did some grocery shopping, made a wonderful dinner of wine, bread, and cheese, and now we are sitting with the doors open watching both the sunset and the Tony Awards... (yes.. we are theatre geeks...) Tomorrow we will spend the day... (and the next 6 days) lounging on the beach eating popsicles!

I am attaching a few pictures... we really haven't taken that many... I will try to do better here in SeaSide!

The reason we don't stay at a hotel in Orlando... the gorgeous lake view from my Grandmothers back porch... We call it our 5 star hotel!

Two nerdy tourists at Universal Studios!

Me and the Grinch at Universal!

The condo.. home sweet home!

Vacation Day 5... aka... CD 1(update)

Yesterday was about as perfect as a day at a theme park could be!

The weather was beautiful... about 85 with a nice breeze... it never felt hot... which is just great when you are outside most of the day.

Mr. D. and I spent the day at Universal Studios... which is a great park! We had our express passes so we never waited more than about 10 minutes for a ride or attraction. We just really enjoyed the park at a very relaxed pace... We ate a nice lunch a sit down restaurant (which... I believe is key to a good theme park day... no gross fast food!) and by about 6 we had done almost everything. We left the park... with plans to go back sometime this week and just shop in the cute novelty stores (the passes include 7 days at the two parks... for the price of two days!)

We met the lovely Jen from Fertility Now! at the Wilderness Lodge Resort where she is staying. We met in the lobby and spent some time with her and the super-cute Andrew! At 14 months he is just a bundle of energy! And those eyes... well... it is obvious that he will be getting away with loads with just with a bat of those baby blues! We chatted in shorthand about IVF vs. adoption and about the people we "meet" on the net. It is so nice when you get to meet some of the people who give you such support!

After we left the hotel we drove to another Disney hotel for dinner. We went to the Animal Kingdom Lodge and ate at Jika. This is an incredible 4 diamond restaurant that serves African Cuisine. (hint... if you go there always sit at "the cooking place"... we love to sit there and watch the chefs make the elaborate dishes and talk to them about their hometowns... and from South Africa or Morocco or Kenya... or even Delaware or Oklahoma!!!! The food is just incredible and the conversation is wonderful! We had such a great time! We also got up close and personal with 3 giraffes and a few zebras... the have a Savannah that you can walk through and see the animals about 15 feet away!

We headed home about 11... and fell exhausted into bed.

Today we are taking it easy... doing some laundry, going to the Cheesecake Factory for lunch with Grandma... and then maybe another movie this evening. Tomorrow we may try to take in a water park.

UPDATE -
Today was great... AF arrived so that sucked... but was expected. WE did laundry, then out to lunch then back to the house for a nap. Mr. D and I left the house at about 3:30 and went back to Universal... we shopped around... ate an ice cream sundae... watched a pretty lame animal show and then decided to head over to one of the Disney Hotels. We ate a quick dinner on the way at Qdoba (sort of fast food... ala Chipotle) and then we went over to The Disney Yacht and Beach Club Resort because I had never seen the inside. The plan was to look at the hotel and then go to the Grand Floridian Hotel to watch fireworks from the beach... but the Yacht and Beach was so great we decided to just sit in a beach chair for awhile and people watch... then we noticed that they were setting up a movie screen on the beach and guess what... we stayed and watched the entire LITTLE MERMAID on the beach sitting in deck chairs with our feet in the sand drinking beers and watching all the little kids act out the entire movie. Very fun.. and relaxing and sort of even romantic... Now we are off to bed... who knows what we will do tomorrow!

Vacation Day 3

Hello from sunny Orlando!

Mr. D and I arrived on Friday night at about 6:00 and my precious 86 year old Grandma took us out to dinner... We were so happy to be here after such a long drive... but after dinner we pretty much showered and went to bed.

Yesterday we slept in and then went to a cute Farmer's Market in Winter Park. There is a huge fountain in the middle of Park Avenue and someone had filled it with bubbles! Now I have seen fountains with soap bubbles before but never anything like this!!! OMG... It was a mountain of pure white about 6 feet tall and spilling out all over the sidewalks... and the best part was that there we kids everywhere playing in it. It really looked like kids playing in the snow!

We headed into Downtown Disney and window shopped for a couple of hours and then back to WinterPark for coffee and dinner with Grandma at home... pizza... her favorite. Then Mr. D. and I took off again and went to the movies... We saw a great SciFi movie called KNOCKED UP... but it wasn't very realistic... I mean I bought it up until this one girl gets pregnant after having sex once... I mean come on... give me a break... Other than that the movie is really funny and depending on where you are in your cycle you might like it... There is a hysterical scene with the good old "dildo u/s cam" that had Mr. D. laughing so hard he was crying. And it isn't filled with "warm and gushy" baby crap.. more like "funny, realistic, say the f-word 300 times" baby crap... so I actually enjoyed it. And for those of you who are pregnant... there is no "baby almost dies" crap... so it is pretty safe to see... uhm... except for the birth scenes... which may be the funniest scenes in a movie... ever. But beware... I did see more pregnant women in line to see this movie than I have ever scene together anywhere... it was like some strange pregnant cult. Anyway... if I wasn't on a blissful vacation I may have waited until this came out on DVD... but... it really did make me laugh a lot. After the movie Mr. D. and I went and bought a pregnancy test after the movie... you know... just a hopeful "just in case" type moment... it was sweet.

This morning (after taking the obligatory hpt... which was a BFN... surprise!) we headed to Universal Studios Islands of Adventure to ride roller coasters! They have this new thing called an Express Plus Pass that for an extra $20 bucks you can bypass almost every line for every ride... TOTALLY WORTH IT! We didn't wait longer than about 10 minutes for anything! It was an absolutely gorgeous day here in Florida... so we didn't mind getting soaked on the water rides. And since Mr. D, doesn't do roller coasters...(something about puking...) I rode them all solo... even THE HULK which is super intense! We had a great day!

Tomorrow we are going to the Studio's part of Universal Studio's. I think it will be my favorite part... I can't wait because I have never been to this park! AND... we have our Express Plus passes so (YAY!) no lines!!!

The rest of the week is still up in the air... we will be meeting friends for dinner, seeing more of my family, hopefully meeting up with Jen for coffee or lunch, taking the boat out on the lake, spending 2 more days doing the Disney thing (one day Park hopping and another at a water park) and on Friday we are going to Cape Canaveral to watch a space shuttle take off (Mr. D. is sooooo excited about that!) We will be here until next Sunday and then we will drive into Seaside for a week at the condo. Whew... I am going to need a vacation from this vacation!

I will try to figure out how to post pictures soon. I am using my Grandmother's laptop and it is pretty old... it won't take my camera card and doesn't seem to have a usb port... Maybe on Tuesday we can take ours up to Starbucks and used their wifi to add some pictures...

I hope everyone is doing well out there. We are having a great time here relaxing... and boy did I ever need to ride those roller coasters after the roller coaster I have been on for the past year.. or four.

I'll post soon!

Vacation - Day 1

Our first day on the road went very well. We left home about 7:45 AM and arrived in Biloxi, Mississippi about 12 hours later. We ran into some storms and traffic around New Orleans so we were about 2 hours behind schedule. We had a pretty good time in the car... Mr. D. had downloaded a ton of podcasts of NPR shows that we like (This American Life, Selected Shorts, and Wait Wait Don't Tell Me!) We also listened to a play on tape that I may direct someday called School for Wives by Moliere.

We checked in to the Imperial Palace Hotel and Casino in Biloxi. After dinner at the hotel sports bar we gambled for a couple of hours. Neither of us are big gamblers (read in to that about our infertility as you will...) We played with $10 each and at the end of the evening Mr. D. had $9.30 and I has $5.00. At one point I was up to a whopping $13.95... but I lost it.. and honestly... that lost $5 haunts me. I guess I would rather have my whole $10 than risk half of it... Everyone else at the casino was having a great time... but me... I don't know... maybe I am doing it wrong... but Gambling just isn't my thing.

This morning we will leave at about 9am to head in to Orlando... it should take us about 8 hours... then we will get settled in at Grandma's, go to dinner, and start having fun!

I am planning on meeting up with a fellow blogger Jen from FERTILITY NOW at some point this week. This will be the second time our paths have crossed in the years I have been blogging. Two years ago I was at a theatre conference in New Mexico where she lives and we met at the airport and she took me to dinner. I am excited to see her again and meet her little Andrew.

OK.. the Pink elephant/ troll in the room... Krista.
Thank you for leaving my blog. I can't imagine what I have done that would make a total stranger speak so hatefully but... you are right... this is obviously not the place for you. I am not sure how you have deducted that I am a horrible and selfish person from my posts, but I do assure you... I would be an awesome parent... and I do deserve to have a child of my own. The comments you made were so uncalled for... I mean this is a blog... if you don't like what someone says move on. I am not sure why your single purpose for posting seemed to be to tear me down... especially at a time in my life where I need support. Your comments say a whole lot more about you as a person than about me... and I really hope that somewhere in your life you find the peace that you need. Good luck Krista... and if you have kids in your life... hug them today... I think they might need it.

On with vacation!!!