Greetings from the Sunshine State … written in the Bay State

A few rambling thoughts from my time in Central Florida:

• The Magic Kingdom is not so magical for a constipated 5-year old.
• I love my wife's cynicism; it's actually rather endearing and edgy. But it is much easier to suspend my sense of irony and disillusionment at a theme park when she's not there.
• Between the hours of 9 a.m. and 2 p.m. on Sunday, the day of our return trip home, Jacob used the term "not fair" — or something similar regarding the relative fairness of whatever activity (major or minor) I was prohibiting — 17 times.
• Did you know that "It's a Small World" was originally commissioned for the 1964 World's Fair in New York? Evidently, the world was too small then to include Jews or to delve into anything deeper than ethnic stereotypes (Hawaiians surf! Australian aborigines use boomerangs!). That said, it is a retro-quirky ride — as is the Carousel of Progress, which we unfortunately missed, and the boys really liked it. And the song has been stuck in my head for 4 days.
• According to the Frommer's guide I was reading, WDW's "Tomorrowland" went from futuristic to retro-futuristic in around 1994 or so. I'm a big fan of "the future that never was."
• Evidently WDW has a exclusive deal with Coca Cola. I'm a bigger fan of the Pepsi family of products, and figured once I hit the Hess that was outside the boundaries of the Magic Kingdom on the parkway out to the Interstate, I'd be OK. No such luck.
• If you're in a car with 3 adults, a 5-year old and a toddler, and if the car is a traditional 5-passenger car, and if the drive is > 1 hour, volunteer to drive. You won't have to entertain the kids if you're sitting in back, and you won't have to help the person sitting in back if you're sitting in the passenger seat. No charge for that tip.
• Leading up to the trip, my greatest anxiety was the air travel with two kids (one squirmy one on my lap). The trip down was fine; Jacob watched TV (God bless JetBlue) and Colin slept and mostly looked at his brother looking at TV. Going home was more difficult–beginning with Colin's bloody nose at the airport, which happened when he fell off the ledge he was standing on when he was watching planes from the window at our gate (Honestly, I thought he had better balance). Then he basically squirmed and cried the bulk of our 3 hour trip home. Luckily, any into or out of Orlando will feature at least 50 percent families with children. I feel for any business travelers heading in or out of MCO. But I survived (Go! Walk out the door!), hey hey, I survived.
• Other than pre-1994 (when the Starbucks chain expanded into Washington, D.C.) and perhaps the last year I went to Lake Oquaga without my espresso maker, this trip may have been my longest stint sans espresso-based drinks in 15 years (I did sneak off to a Starbucks on Thursday as I was making my trip to CVS for anti-constipation supplies for the boy).
• I really enjoyed the ribs at Sonny's.

Of Chick-fil-a, UNC hoops and Brian Wilson

North Carolina Trip – 06
Originally uploaded by eharrison3

A few items as I unpack my brain from my recent trip to Raleigh-Durham …

• Chick-fil-a sandwiches taste better south of the Mason-Dixon line. Mr. Brian and I enjoyed a number of them at the UNC/Evansville game, and that number was 4.
• From a strictly architectural point-of-view, the Dean Smith Center is nothing special. But put a full house in there, and look out. Those fans know basketball.
• Tyler Hansbrough would be beloved as a Boston Celtic, if you know what I'm saying. And I think you do.
• If you're going to be stuck in an airport for 7 hours, you could do worse than the new terminal at RDU.
• The Chevy Impala I rented in NC is the reason why two of our major auto makers are bankrupt, and worse, highly irrelevant. There was nothing alluring or even competent about the car.
• Brian Wilson can make a song festooned with sleigh bells sound like the saddest yet most beautiful thing in the world. Listen to "God Only Knows" ten times in a row like I did today while I was driving home, and I think you'll understand.

“You know, I noticed something … there are a lot of pumpkins here.”

The title to this entry? Stated by Jacob, 4 1/2, after around 2 hours at the Keene, N.H. Pumpkin Festival. He definitely has his old man's keen observational skills. Some observations:

Man, that was a lot of pumpkins. But it was more than 7,000 short of the event's world record, which led us to believe that the poor economy has people eating pumpkins, burning them for fuel or using them for shelter rather than decorating them and trekking to Keene, N.H.

Probably no need to get there at 11:15 a.m. if your goal, with two kids in tow, is to make it to the fireworks at 8:30 p.m. (We didn't make it.) Also, don't book a room 45 minutes away if it takes you 45 minutes further away from home the next morning. That said, the weather was amazing today and we took secondary roads for the trek home, which was really nice. And we got 30.3 MPG. Take that, Big Oil!

We convinced a guy who was carving one of the signature huge pumpkins to make his into the iconic "Man on the Mountain" N.H. state logo. I thought it was cool although a lot of people couldn't tell what it was.

Keene's Turn It Up! record store is very cool. Picked up Lucinda Williams' newest album, even though I don't really buy CDs any more. I enjoyed the browsing process so much that it was worth the $3 or so surcharge over what iTunes would have cost. I miss record stores. *Sigh*.

The Colonial Theatre in Keene was showing free cartoons all day. Jacob freaked out and wouldn't go in with me but I got to see around 45 seconds of my third-favorite cartoon of all time, the wacky, surreal Duck Amuck. "This is a closeup?!?!"

I suck at seed spitting.

I posted photos to Facebook and to Flickr. Can't decide if I should just standardize on Facebook (which allows me to share with people both on and off of Facebook).

Cisco Beach, Nantucket

I just installed the TypePad app for the iPhone so this entry is more to just play with that. Enjoying a litle quiet time at the hotel now before dinner. Quite frankly, I am overwhelmed by all the possibilities that exist with this here free time so I'm blowing it on the iPhone. We rented bikes today and checked out the island a bit. Scooters looked more fun. But I am green. And I need to exercise. Miss the boys.

All I ever wanted, how did it get away?

Oquaga 2008 – 37
Originally uploaded by eharrison3

I've finally posted some photos from our trek out to Lake Oquaga in Deposit/Sanford N.Y. last week. Click here for the entire set. Pictured here is Jacob, looking pretty sporty in shades and lifejacket.

I Do … Want an Update on Game 6

The Lions Have Lost Last 4 of 6 on Thanksgiving
Originally uploaded by eharrison3

Was at the lively nail-biter of a Celtics game last night … a big Game 5 win for the C's over the Pistons, with a trip to the Finals (first time since 1987) just one game away.

This coming weekend, I'm heading to Juliet's cousin Pablo's wedding in D.C. Despite growing up in greater DC, Pablo is a huge Detroit sports fan (he lived his formative years around the Motor City) … in fact, given the Lions universally horrid play on Thanksgiving, most of the time when I see him (which tends to be Thanksgiving), he's pretty miserable — he's gotten better as I think he understands that they will perpetually suck, but I admire his plucky dedication. (Check out the shot of him decked out in a Joey Harrington jersey from Thanksgiving 2005). It should be interesting given that Game 6 of the Celtics/Pistons will be during his wedding reception. Will the TV be on? Will Pablo be getting updates he can share with us?

It reminds me a bit of our wedding, when the Yankees and Mariners played their epic Game 5 in the ALDS and my brother-in-law kept ducking into the kitchen to get updates.

One Happy Island

 
 
 

I posted some photos from our trip to Aruba (the cousins pictured on the left are Zachary, age 3; Pilar, age 3; and Jacob, age 4; not pictured, Colin, age 11/12). Click here to see them. And here are some random thoughts:

• US Airways decided to give away Colin’s seat for our very-much overbooked trip home. The one we bought, brought his car seat for and confirmed months ago. This didn’t sit well with us; in our pre-determined roles as angry cop and angrier cop, I asked the ticketing agent to "solve the problem"; Juliet wondered (loudly and repeatedly) why no one could give us an answer as to whether we’d have seats. I can’t blame her in the least for her frustration. The ticketing agent overreacted and called security. We skedaddled with our no-seat boarding passes before the got there.
• At the Reina Beatrix Aeropuerto, you have to go through security not once, but twice. Odd.
• Cricket makes absolutely no sense. Yes, baseball is complicated and quirky (why is bunting foul with two strikes an out, but swinging away and fouling with two strikes not?) … but cricket, man, I just don’t get it. I watched a good 30 minutes of it on ESPN International on Saturday morning (Colin got us up bright and early). My take-away was that the Sri Lankans are a machine, and matches go on for 78 hours.
• It’s not fun holding a squirmy, "big-boned" one-year old on your lap for a five-hour flight.
• America runs on Dunkin’. So does Aruba. There were two Dunkin’ Donuts near our hotel (the Hyatt Aruba, which was quite nice). It was like being in Revere. OK, no it wasn’t.
• I went to a new country, and saw maybe two acres of it — the Hyatt, the Dunkin’ Donuts and a restaurant or two within walking distance.  Other than the fact that it was a Dutch colony, I can tell you pretty much nothing about the country, its economy or its natives. I am an Ugly American.
• The official languages are Dutch (which has funny looking words like "") and Papiamento, a Creole patois featuring elements of African languages, Portuguese, Dutch and Spanish.
• I admit that I just looked up the previous fact.
• Seems to me like everyone was speaking English (hotel guests) or Spanish (hotel employees, Juliet’s cousin Pablo).
• I don’t handle "Caribbean Time" well. I think it was Erikah Badu who said in a recent interview, "Time is for white people." Damn right it is. I want my iced coffee now.
• Going to the Caribbean always makes me feel sort of guilty. International tourism and hotel concerns occupy the country’s prime real estate to offer up a completely artificial (and yes, awesome) experience that allows the well-to-do the chance to hobnob with other well-to-dos through a vacation experience built on the backs of locals (or, often, personnel brought in from other, poorer countries) who staff the service economy that is there to cater to my every need.
• Whenever I get too caught up in the awkwardness, I reward myself with a pedicure, wherein a well-to-do individual pays a local to scrub the rough skin off the sole of his foot and trim his hideous cuticles.
• All that said, damn, my toenails look amazing.

And boy are my arms tired

We’re back from Aruba. I will post more later (I had written a lengthy post in the hotel but it doesn’t seem to have saved) as I’m sure that all my reader (sic) are interested. Anyhoo, enjoy this photo of Jacob in snorkeling gear … more to come. I will tease this: hands up if your wife had security called on her by the US Airways ticket counter. (I’d type more but one of my hands is up.)

Florida — on Facebook

I’m trying something a little new today, and publishing photos from our Florida trip on Facebook (the link is for the public photo album, if you’re on Facebook you can find it on my site) rather than Flickr. I am so down with the kids and the social networking. Ezra, I was wrong, Facebook is cool and quite useful. I regret the error.

Vacation: Pros and Cons

Pros:

• Great weather.
• Lots of time with family.
• Jacob had a great time.
• Colin seemed to appreciate what was happening around him.
• I’m told the Reuben at the ESPN SportsZone at DIsney Boardwalk is quite excellent, and although I had the kobe burger, just by sight, it looked great. Tammy, I know you have a culinary degree and a highly-regarded food blog, but I don’t care what you say, reubens are supposed to be stuffed with meat.
• I drove a mini-van all week and still maintained a modicum of street cred. For example, "That Vampire Weekend album lives up to the hype!" I actually can say that and know what that means.
• Got to watch the Space Shuttle launch. It was pretty cool to be part of thousands of people on a beach, not one of which was facing the water.

Cons:

• Hello co-workers. Glad to be back. I’m not crying. I’m not high. I have double pinkeye.
• That hummus and veggie sandwich at the ship-themed restaurant at WDW. Overpriced, meet soggy.
• No one else wanted to go to the Hall of Presidents. For shame.
• "Ah, it’s good to be home. Should my house be 53 degrees? I should check the basement. [Very bad 12-letter word deleted]" Broken boiler valve+away for 5 days=no heat upon arrival home, flooded basement.
• Jacob showed his grandparents that he is picking up my salty vocabulary. When we were unloading the van at their condo, he was telling some story about getting poked by a palm tree (never happened) which ended with him saying, "F***!" repeatedly, then explaining that "f***" wasn’t a bad word; "It’s OK, I didn’t say ‘f***ing.’" No amount of pleading on my part could get him to stop dropping f-bombs until we got inside.
• No decent lattes or espressos in or around the Magic Kingdom. Iced Nescafe does not count.
• $180 for admission and you’re going to charge me $10 to park, Sea World? You’re on the list.
• Same to you, Magic Kingdom, except I stayed on property and thus didn’t have to park. You got lucky.
• On the return flight, Jacob enjoyed his first-ever Tom and Jerry cartoons on JetBlue’s in-flight TV. When the choice is excessively violent cartoon or whining, cartoon wins, hands down. Although he hasn’t yet hit me with a frying pan or a mallet, I think the over-the-top violence certainly confused him. For example, the scene in the Screwy Squirrel cartoon in which Mr. Squirrel hits a dog across the head with everything he can find in a trunk labeled "Assorted Swell Stuff to Hit Dog on Head."