Race Recap: Marine Corps Half Marathon

I don’t think I can say enough positive things about this race.  The expo was held in conjunction with a local festival (at which I spent a whopping $2 on a pumpkin pie Rita’s), and packet pick-up also included a free pasta dinner.  I got my race bag from a nice man named Dennis, who snuck two extra safety pins in my bag when I commented about stealing the extra two that Jackie wasn’t going to be using.  We ran into him two other times the following day, and he was incredibly friendly both times.  He told us that this race was the original Marine Corps Half, and that they are happy that they get to show off the base to people who might otherwise not get to see it.  He also told us that we had the best weather they’ve had in 20 years.  We were definitely happy we got to enjoy that!

After we picked up our packets, I sheepishly asked a group of three Marines if I could be tacky and ask them to pose for a photo.  They obliged, and a woman standing nearby forced two other ones to get in the picture as well.  It just might be my favorite pre-race photo yet (or maybe a close second to the one with the astronaut mural from before last year’s Space Coast Half)!  Someone with the event also asked if he could take the same photo – lord knows where that’ll end up!

With only about 1,100 runners registered (less than 1,000 finished), the race really wasn’t crowded at all after the first mile.  Jackie and I settled into a good pace and set off on our own race, not paying attention to the hundreds of people who took off so quickly we couldn’t see them again!  We talked and laughed (the theme of the weekend), enjoyed the eye candy, and watched the miles roll by.  Jackie was having a problem with an anti-blister pad on her heel giving her a blister, so we stopped just after the mile 4 water station so she could yank it out.  The break gave me a chance to stretch my ham strings, which is always a bonus!

The course ran through Camp Lejeune.  We saw all sorts of fitness stations – climbing ropes, pull-up bars, giant tires… -- and joked about stopping to take silly pictures, but I thought that I might be at a PR pace and it stopped me from wanting to spend too much time horsing around.  In addition to the fitness stations, we seemed to run past housing for Marines of increasing rank.  We started going past barracks and “bachelor housing” (which reminded me of the fact that the AK gorillas are divided into the family group and the bachelor group), cute little single-family homes, and then two-story homes across the street from the water.  I was about to ask what you have to rank to get a two-story house, and then noticed that the little name plates at the foot of each driveway had rank and last name.  Mystery solved!  I saw a few Majors and Commanders, and then stopped paying attention.

The water stops were all manned by Marines in their cute little matching track suits.  They were Disney-friendly – making eye contact, smiling, and some yelling encouragement.  Even the ones doing traffic control (obviously on duty, judging by the side arms and uniforms) were friendly as we passed.  I’m not sure why I expected them to be scowling and judgmental about us slowpokes running through their base, but I’m so happy that they weren’t!

…and while we’re on the subject of the Marines, I think now is a good time to have a quick side note about running on the base.  It was humbling for me.  I realized pretty quickly that I needed to stop calling the Marines “kids,” even though many were practically half my age.  (reality gut-check: some of them were born the year I graduated from high school)  It’s disrespectful to refer to someone dedicated to God and Country, willing to die for said Country, and more committed to that job than I’ve probably ever been to anything as a “kid.”  I also noticed a handful of the people competing in the wheelchair division were wearing shirts that identified them as disabled veterans.  Wow.  I’m not sure I can even begin to put into words what it was like to come face-to-face with just a tiny bit of what I only half pay attention to on the evening news.  I definitely complained less about my sore feet and shin splints than I normally do, and that had A LOT to do with my surroundings.  Also, after the race our buddy Dennis told us that there was an 88-year-old retired Sgt. Major participating.  I checked the results, and it looks like he was the last one to cross the finish line at just about 5 hours.  When I’m 88, I hope I’m still that tough!

Around mile 9 or 10, Jackie and I pretty much stopped talking.  I think we were both trying to keep ourselves motivated to not slow the other one down.  In the last race we ran together, I noticed that my run pace was faster than hers toward the end, but that she walks faster than I do.  We were doing that again, and sort of leap-frogging each other.  Mile 9 was also the point I was pleasantly surprised to find out that the water stations were now every mile, instead of only on the even miles.  Thanks to the excuse to walk while drinking a tiny cup of water, we were actually able to maintain our intervals with no extra walk breaks.  This is the first time I was able to accomplish that with the 25/40 intervals (and the reason I bumped the intervals up to 30/40 on this morning’s run).  By mile 9 or 10 of Sarasota, those same intervals had kicked my butt!

As we approached the finish, we were able to “run it in” to the finish line from a further distance than I usually can.  A nice (female) Marine put my medal around my neck.  Jackie and I congratulated a woman we leap-frogged during the race – 50 years old with 5 kids and a grandkid, running in her first half-marathon alongside her Marine husband.  They were pushing a stroller through the whole thing as well, and finished probably a minute ahead of us.  And we traded phones with that couple so that they could have a finisher photo together, and so that Jackie and I could do the same.

As far as post-race parties go, this one was pretty standard.  We got baggies with assorted fresh fruit, and they had water, Powerade, and even burgers available.  Beer was there for purchase, and there was a pretty decent band playing.  Since I’m not a fan of the giant post-race festivals, this small gathering was just my speed.  There was plenty of space to sit, wander, eat, and talk without my crowd-phobia kicking in at all.

I’m actually sad that this race is 10+ hours from home, because I genuinely enjoyed it and would love to do it every year.  Now that I’ve hit ten (TEN?? Yes, ten!!) half-marathons, I’m planning on ranking the races (and, separately, the medals) in a future post.  This race is going to be very close to the top.

So…how’d I do?  Thanks for asking!

Chip Time: 3:03:04 **PR** (by 4:15)
Pace: 13:59 min/mile
Overall Place: 905/964
Women’s Rank: 459/504

My Splits (according to RunKeeper):
Mile 1: 12:52
Mile 2: 13:04
Mile 3: 13:23
Mile 4: 13:30
Mile 5: 14:30 (includes our shoe-fix stop)
Mile 6: 13:35
Mile 7: 13:44
Mile 8: 13:30
Mile 9: 13:48
Mile 10: 13:28
Mile 11: 14:13
Mile 12: 13:37
Mile 13: 14:09

I had a massive runner’s high after this race like nothing I’d ever experienced before.  I was incredibly proud of my PR (although I didn’t realize until just now that it was 4+ minutes), and that I finally hit my goal of a sub-14 pace.  Jackie and I were both basically euphoric at the after-party, and neither of us managed a post-race nap.  I did have multiple laughing-with-tears episodes, one of which turned into a full-on ugly cry.  It’s always embarrassing when that happens, but I guess just had more emotions than I could process at one time!

It was a great race, and an amazingly fun weekend.  I can’t remember the last time I laughed so hard, so often, for so many days straight.  Getting in and out of the car on the drive home Sunday was even funny, because we were both moaning, groaning, and limping every time.

Oh, the Places I'll Go!

Today is the last day of Part One (weeks 1-2) of Jamie's Excellent Adventure.  Although I did my race recap right after ODDyssey, I didn't chronicle my travels to Philadelphia.  I also took zero notes while I was traveling, vacationing, and enjoying the hell out of the last week, so I'm using this post to record every thing I can think of.  It'll probably be long, but it's been amazing, so hopefully it'll also be entertaining to read.

The Journey
I set off from home just about 6 am on Friday the 6th.  Without doing a whole heck of a lot of research, I felt like I wanted to make it into Virginia on the first day and then have a shorter but more stressful (DC, Baltimore, and Philly traffic) day the second day.  I listened to the radio, sang loudly, and left my cruise control on almost the whole day.  I split up my food breaks and my gas breaks so I wouldn't be in the car for more than three hours at a time.  And I have to say, I really enjoyed that first driving day.  I didn't quite make it to Virginia, but as it turns out the town I stopped in was 10 miles south of the border.

Random thought I had at 1pm that first day: "I've been driving for 7 hours now.  That's how long I have to finish the Disney Marathon.  I think I might've preferred running."

On the second day, I found myself all of a sudden confused that when the speed limit slowed to 55 heading into DC, suddenly the slow cars around me were going 75.  The previous day, with a speed limit of 70, I was the fast car at 75-80.  I also think I stopped for a total of 3 tolls: one at the tunnel in Baltimore, another random one in Maryland, and the cover charge for the privilege of entering Delaware, which should have just had a sign up that said "closed for construction."  I eventually made it into Pennsylvania and had an "I am woman, hear me roar" moment when I realized that I had actually made it all the way there, all by myself.

And then I ran a half-marathon.

The Destination
My first week in New Jersey was actually pretty quiet.  I bummed around Jackie's house quite a bit, drove around the area (literally for the first time by myself, since I didn't get my license until college and then the only other times I was here I was with Scott), did some shopping and A LOT of eating...  After the stress of the end of school, start of grad school, leaving my old job, packing, driving, and racing I was perfectly happy to decompress and just relax.  Of course, "relaxing" at Jackie's house is an adventure all on its own, what with the kids and the toddlers and the pets.  I have to say I totally love it as a temporary visitor, but I'm better suited for a quieter existence!

The Active Part of Vacation

this IS our warm-up routine!

On Saturday the 14th, I did a 5k with Jackie's whole family.  The course was a small circle that we were told to lap 10 times (though I did 11 laps to make it 5k by RunKeeper standards), and every time I passed the girls they would ask what lap I was on.  Their response was always "so am I."  So I'm not really sure how far anyone else actually ran but I was proud of them for going out and doing it!

...and I also had a 5k PR, so I'm pretty proud of myself too!

oui, je suis une artiste!

Saturday night, Jackie and I went to one of those "drink and paint" places that was having a fundraiser for a group she belongs to.  We drank, ate, and painted.  I think they do a really great job running the place, because there were about 15-20 people there, and no one's painting was completely awful.  They were all also very different, as you can tell by my painting (on the left) and Jackie's (on the right).  There are things about my painting that I don't love, but who cares?  I'm still going to hang it up at home somewhere, probably with all of the paintings I bought at thrift stores.

the family that jazz hands together...

On Sunday (Father's Day), I went up to New York to spend the day with my cousin Jenn and her family.  I drove to Trenton and then hopped the train to Penn Station, where I met up with Jenn and the girls.  We hopped on the subway to Hell's Kitchen, where we had a huge amazing Greek feast (and every time we turned around there was another plate of hot pitas straight from the oven).  Trip and the girls then headed off on their own NYC adventure day, and Jenn took me to see Violet, my first Broadway show in more than 15 years.  (the last was either Miss Saigon or Beauty and the Beast)  I requested Violet because it stars Sutton Foster, and she didn't disappoint.  In fact, the whole cast was great (I bought the soundtrack), but she was radiant.  We both cried too.  There's something so magical about being on Broadway.  The theaters are old and beautiful, the performers are the best in the world... major goosebumps!  (by the way, here's the Tony's performance from Violet, in case you are interested)  The day wrapped up back at Jenn's for dinner, a subway ride (by myself) back to Penn Station, and a train back to New Jersey.

Also, I (allegedly) saw a dead body while I was headed back to the subway station.  There was a man laying on his back, not moving, and an EMT jumped out of a fire truck, walked over and looked at him, and then asked the people standing around what was up.  The guy's head was blocked from my view by a mailbox or something, but he definitely wasn't moving.  Since the EMT didn't immediately check his vitals or anything, I decided that he must have been obviously dead.  My crosswalk light changed, so I didn't get to stick around and find out the rest of the story.

Tuesday the 17th found me back in Pennsylvania, this time for dinner with Dawn and Mark.  I was really glad they were able to meet me, since Dawn was my closest cousin growing up and we haven't had a chance to really catch up in far too long.  We caught up on each other's life stories (between all of us, there was a lot to discuss!), dished some family dirt, and had a genuinely wonderful time.  And despite being full from dinner, I couldn't resist swinging through the Sonic drive-through next door for an orange slush for the drive back to NJ!

Dinner the following night became a mini high school reunion.  Originally planned for Tom and I, it turns out that Bill and Vicky were also able to come out.  Bill showed up with a folder of letters and postcards from the college years that had me cringing, laughing, and crying.  Our relationship has been from the beginning quirky and uniquely us.  I love him so much, and continue to be grateful that he's in my life.  The four of us laughed so much during our dinner I think we all hated that it had to end.

Dinner did have to end though, because I was up bright and early Thursday morning to spend another day in New York.  This time, my hosts were my cousin Alexander and his girlfriend Megumi.  Alexander promised me a day of hijinks, and he didn't disappoint!  They picked me up at Penn Station and our first stop was the Houdini Museum.  The museum displays were moderately interesting, but the visit took an unexpected turn when the man behind the counter asked "would you like to see a trick?"  We then had what was basically a 20-minute private magic show by this guy, who truly knew his stuff.  He transformed dollars, hovered coins, and did a lot of fun card tricks.

We then took the subway out to Brooklyn, where we had lunch at a Vietnamese sandwich shop (yum!) and then went to this place called Film Biz Recycling, where they sell and rent items used by TV and film production in NYC that might otherwise end up trashed.  We returned to Manhattan via the Brooklyn Bridge.  I'm not sure why this was so exciting for me, but it was such an amazing moment.  Walking toward the city, seeing the Statue of Liberty and the new World Trade Center building to the left, midtown to the right, and the cables and iconic structure of the Brooklyn Bridge straight ahead... Wow, I just loved it!

The Brooklyn Bridge: possibly my favorite half hour of vacation

We then stopped for margaritas and a snack at one of their favorite kitschy bars before doing a quickie tour of the financial district.  They rode the subway back to Penn Station with me, I got a bagel, and then hopped the train back to Trenton.

Side note: I had the pleasure of sitting next to a drunk man on the train back from NYC.  He was simultaneously hitting on me, sexually harassing me (thank you for telling me that your thumbs, like your d---, were large), making racist anti-Muslim comments about the man across the aisle (who was black and speaking French, so I think perhaps he wasn't personally responsible for 9-11), telling me about his wife and kids, and talking about how much money he makes.  Really though, he was harmless and got off the train long before I did.  Had he been staying on until Trenton, I might have jumped off at some point and taken a later train.  It was kind of fun chatting with a random stranger though, even a creepy one.

Yesterday, Jackie and I took the kids to Great Adventure.  The park was pretty dead -- the longest we waited all day was 30 minutes, and a bunch of coasters were actually walk-on.  I got to take each of the babies on Dumbo-like rides, and rode coasters of varying scariness with the older girls.  I think I might have ridden ONE coaster that was there when I was younger.  That park has changed a lot!

The past week has been full of memories, lots of walking, and lots of late nights and early mornings.  Today was my last full day in town, and I spent it doing homework and laundry.  I took myself out to Bobby's Burger Palace for dinner (yum!!) and started getting my things together.

I'm so sad to be leaving.  It turns out I feel South Jersey roots that I didn't know I have.  I'm happy I got to see so many of my friends and family members, but also bummed about the people I couldn't connect with or spend enough time with.

On To School
I leave tomorrow morning and head to State College.  My one week summer intensive course starts on Monday at 8:30 and I'm definitely looking forward to getting started...but I'm also terrified at the same time.  It's been a long time since I've set foot in a classroom and actually tried.  I guess we'll have to see how it goes!  Hopefully I'll have another "I am woman hear me roar" moment on Friday when I'm done with the class!

Scott's Birthday Cruise-o-Fun

We're back from a 5-night cruise on the Disney Dream.  During TS Isaac.  It seemed like almost everything didn't quite go the way we had expected, and in a few ways it was probably our worst cruise, but the worst cruise is probably still better than the best day at work!

Our Stateroom was definitely the worst we've ever had.  The toilet would only flush when it felt like, which was especially problematic when I was going through some wicked lower intestinal problems on the first night.  (thing Scott probably never wants to hear again in the middle of the night: "I pooped and the toilet won't flush, so you should probably pee in the tub until further notice.")  It did flush in the morning...and then started overflowing!  We also had two different problems with the TV.

Our neighbors were so loud!  We had a connecting door with a family with a little 3-4 year old girl who was a very early riser.  She woke us up the first two mornings screaming and squealing, and we never so much as heard a "shh" from the parents.  Scott may have accidentally kicked off his shoes late at night and launched them into that wall, but I'm sure he didn't mean to...  We were also very close to the mid-ship elevators, and there seemed to be a constant parade of people running and yelling outside our door.

Pirate night ended up lasting three nights.  The original plan was to have pirate night on day 3, but they had to scrap that in the afternoon...when it was too late to change the menu.  So pirate dinner was on day 3, and then the pirate party was on day 4...but there was some sort of technical problem with the fireworks.  So they finally did the pirate fireworks on day 4.

Snorkeling was a mixed bag.  My breathing tube kept getting water in it, so I got better at blowing water out the top.  Due to the storm and the rough time we had pulling into Castaway Cay (more on that to come), visibility in the first half of the snorkel lagoon was essentially zero.  We were right next to one of the buoys marking a cool thing below and could not see a thing, and we were frustrated and annoyed.  We decided to swim up to the next buoy just for the exercise, and 5 feet later we were in clear water with tons of fish.  We saw the sunken ship, the submarine, and the Mickey statue.  AND Scott taught me how to dive down without drowning, so I was able to go down and touch Mickey's hand.  Victory!!  Things didn't go quite so well on the way back in.  We were going against the current, and it was really hard to get in.  Scott also had some sand or something in the top of his fin, and ended up with an impressive scrape across the top of his foot that gets rubbed by every pair of shoes he owns. 

I ran, but not the way I had planned.  The plan was to do the "Castaway 5k" on our first Castaway day, and I went and signed in and got my bib and waited...and waited...  It took us 3 hours to pull into Castaway, so the 5k ended up being cancelled.  Since I was already dressed, I decided to run around deck 4.  I did 2 miles, and then got showered and changed for the island.  They did the 5k again on the second Castaway day, but it interfered with our last chance to watch Brave in the theater, so I woke up at 6 and ran 3.2 miles (8 laps) on the deck.  The bonus to running on deck was the great breeze, which I've heard you don't get at all on the island.

We had great table mates at dinner, and our servers were really good as well.  The food was good, and we had a few things that were clean-plate-club good.  We did Palo for brunch and dinner on Scott's birthday, and our server had only been on the ship for 4 months.  She was incredibly nice, and you could tell she was still pretty green.  She made some really great recommendations, and we loved pretty much everything.  The only downside of Palo was the crappy weather.  We should've been looking out on blue skies and bluer seas, and instead were shrouded in gray mist that made me a little panicky and claustrophobic.

There's lots more I could share, but I've got to get ready for work. 

A More Legitimate Review of the Year

I haven't been really great about blogging this year, so you might not know what a great year it's really been around here.

Travels

We started the year with a quick weekend trip to Ft. Myers to visit the O'King side of the family, and then did a two-night mini cruise on Disney's newest cruise ship, the Dream. 

In September, we took a road trip that included the Georgia Aquarium, the Penn State campus, Philadelphia, the NJ shore, and Hilton Head.  We had such a wonderful time... I can't believe I didn't blog about it.

We wrapped up the year with another cruise, this one our "last hurrah" before I start school.  We celebrated our anniversary and Christmas in style, and got to see the new Muppets movie onboard rather than get off the ship in Nassau.



The Cousins doing "jazz hands"



Family Visits



In addition to our January trip to FoMo, it seems like 2011 was the year to reconnect with family.  Mary and Richard's 50th anniversary party in August turned into the biggest family reunion in probably 20 years.  We spent two days in the parks with different groups of family and had a great time at the actual party as well.

I also got to spend Thanksgiving with Mom and Michael.  This was the first "family" holiday we've had in what feels like a million years.  Sadly, Scott had to work, but I brought home lots of leftovers for him.

Changes...in Shades of Blue

I got a new car, we painted an accent wall in our bedroom, and I decorated the garage.  (well, I decorated half the garage.  I really am planning on finishing that one day!) Blue was definitely the signature color of 2011.

Culinary Adventures

I'm getting much better at cooking big chunks of meat.  My favorite cut of pork is the "butt shoulder," which is the butt or shoulder, and makes a darn fine spaghetti sauce and/or pork roast.  I'm a huge fan of beef short ribs, and made a new cut - horseradish-crusted brisket - for Christmas.  We also killed a pair of lobsters this year.

Entertainment

We finished up our second subscription series at the Straz Center in Tampa and decided to not renew for a third.  Shrek and Billy Elliott were wonderful, but overall we were disappointed in the shows we saw and this season's shows were mostly outside our interest.  We put some of our theater money into Sea World annual passes.  We haven't really made use of them as much as I'd hoped, but I've used the time we spent practicing photography.  I also got Scott a subscription to GameFly for his birthday and he's played about a million shoot-em-up games so far.  He'll also get a lot of use out of it once I start school.

I think that's most of the highlights.  I'm looking forward to finding out what 2012 will bring.  I'm expecting big things...

Putting the "Trip" in Road Trip

Scott and I have an event to attend in New Jersey this fall.  No matter how we sliced it, plane tickets were going to end up costing us more that I felt we could spend (and that was before I got my transcript out of hock). So we decided to take a little more time off from work and make the drive.  Even if gas was $4/gallon by then, we'd still be spending less than the airfare and rental car would cost.  But really, anyone who has ever driven up I-95 knows how miserable the DC to Philly leg is.  No matter what, the traffic is terrible and the drivers are hostile.  So today I had a crazy idea that might not be so crazy after all. Working with the following parameters: Work on Monday, event on Saturday morning, home on Tuesday here's what I'm thinking:

Monday afternoon: leave immediately after work and get at least an hour into Georgia before finding a place to spend the night

Tuesday: arrive in Atlanta by noon at the latest, spend 4-5 hours at Scott's Happy Place (the Georgia Aquarium), and then spend 3-4 hours headed North before finding a bed.

Wednesday: driving day! 9-10 hours to reach State College and spend the night some place walking distance from the PSU campus

Thursday: spend a couple of hours exploring Penn State and showing Scott the interesting touristy places and things.  And getting ice cream.  Leave State College and drive 4 hours to Philly, hopefully early enough to see my Grandpop.

Friday: something touristy in Philly before heading to the Jersey Shore.

Saturday morning: The Event. We'll be on the road southbound by 4 pm, and hope to make it south of DC before crashing for the night.

Sunday: drive straight down I-95 to Hilton Head, SC in time to go to dinner at Red Fish (no lie, we went there in 2008 and Scott is still talking about this place!) and crash at the Disney resort there.

Monday: drive home and get ready to go back to work on Tuesday.

I'm not deluding myself - it's A LOT of driving. Google tells me the route above is just over 2,500 miles, but the Orlando-Philly trip would be 2,000 miles round-trip. And this way the whole trip feels like a vacation instead of 2 long days in the car on I-95 with a few relaxing days in between.  It also gives us the chance to revisit the "best of"our other out-of-state trips and hit some places Scott has never been.

Of course, we still have a fair amount of time between now and then.  Lots could change. Heck, this vacation is on version 4.2 already!  Still, these plans are really exciting to both of us start to finish, which definitely makes the extra miles worth it.

Anyone want to play devil's advocate?

Honest Review of a Preview Cruise

As I believe I mentioned before, Scott and I bought each other a 2-night preview cruise of the Disney Dream for Christmas.  The cruise was this past weekend, and we had SO much fun and ate SO much food and had SO many new experiences that nothing I could possibly type could possibly encompass it all.

The whole trip wasn't "OMG BEST VACATION EVERRRRR" by a long shot.  Our dining room servers were by far the worst I'd ever had. The assistant server was actually not bad, and would probably thrive if paired with a different partner, but the server barely spoke English, didn't introduce himself, didn't check on whether we liked everything, served me the wrong food enough times that it became comical (him: "your tuna" me: "those are beets." true story!), and literally dropped the food on the table and walked away without explaining the dish. The food was very hit and miss.  My entree on the first night was inedible, and Scott's was maybe the best thing he ate the entire weekend.  Our stateroom was missing a phone and an alarm clock.  There's a hair dryer in the bathroom, but the only outlet sized for the hair dryer was on the desk. We even had a bad service experience on Castaway Cay*.

That said, once the staff gets into the swing of things, I have no doubt that the cruising experience is going to be top-notch. 

The ship itself is exquisite, with chandeliers everywhere that sparkle like diamonds.  The art in the stairwells is beautiful, and varies from 20-foot paintings to production art from Pixar movies.  The ship also has "enchanted art," which are basically framed flat-panel screens that sense your presence and animate for a few seconds.  Walt Disney sketches Mickey Mouse, pirate ships fire cannons, and scenes from cartoons come to life.  I was absolutely enthralled, and kept pausing in front of them to watch them again and again.

The furniture in the public areas is modern and rich and beautiful. And comfortable, too. There were at least a half-dozen places I wished I had more time to sit with a good book. Alas, I had neither time nor book.  The theater and the movie theater are both beautiful, and the shows are spectacular.  There are even nightclubs where loud music and bright flashing lights have been replaced with softer tunes and puffy chairs.  And our stateroom, though a bit smaller than on the other Disney ships, was beautiful and bright with comfy furniture and plenty of storage space.

I would recommend a vacation on the Disney Dream to anyone. But not just yet. Give them six months to settle in before sailing off into the sunset.

*On Castaway, the seat literally broke off of Scott's rented bike on the farthest point on the trail from civilization, bruising his calf and scraping/bruising his stomach where he was nearly impaled by the handlebar. The only good news is that he fell forward onto the handles instead of down onto his testes. Once we walked back to the closest tram spot and rode the tram across the island, we went back to the bike rental shack where I told the worker that the bikes had been ditched. Scott asked about the location of first aid, and I asked for a refund.  He offered me another bike (no thank you) or a float rental (in January? bwahahaha), but said he couldn't give me my money back. I guess now I understand why they make you sign a release before renting!

Idea Drought

I'm looking for new and interesting ideas for my next vacation photo album. On our last big trip, I put together the A to Z album. But in the end, that was a monster PITA and I had to cheat on 3 or 4 letters. Oh, and I think I finished it about a year after we got home.

So this year I thought I'd try to come up with something equally as creative, but I can't seem to find anything I want to commit to.

Birds?

Food?

Tourist photo ops?

Who has a suggestion or request for me?

I Don't Know About You...

...but I'M going on vacation. Yes, I'm taking Scott too.

Sorry Internet, but I'm not going to tell you when I'm leaving so you can break into my house and steal my cats!

I'll send you a postcard!

Scenes from the Florida Aquarium

Things I Learned at the Dali Museum

At the Salvador Dali Museum I learned:


* Dali made some truly beautiful art - paintings that looked exactly like they should have


* Dali was in love with himself


* Dali was in love with his wife, who had previously been married to a poet who composed sonnets to her beauty (or something like that. the point is Gala was apparently quite the muse)


* That pixelated thing that kind of looks like Abe Lincoln? It is Abe Lincoln...with a naked Gala in the middle


* I still don't really get the whole melting clock thing, but we did buy a Christmas ornament because Scott loves it.


* Unless you want a print of melting clocks (which wasn't even on display) or the floating rose (also not on display) or 2 or 3 other of the most famous paintings, don't even think about a souvenir.


* The people who write the descriptions next to the paintings are flaming morons... or are under contract to only write PG-rated descriptions. Case in point, this litho had a description that literally had me laughing out loud. I can't remember the exact wording, but apparently the cross-section of the peach represents an eye. I basically looked at Scott and asked, more loudly than I should have, if that was an eye, then why was there a penis-vine poking through it? C'mon...that is NOT an eye!


My favorite part of the museum was Scott's least favorite - the botanical sketches called "Flordali" (for obvious reasons - "flor" for flower, and "Dali" because he was egotistical!). The 'fruits' collection can be seen at the link above. There's another set of flowers with different personalities as well.


My favorite piece of art in the museum was the one to the left,"Pecher Penitent (Penitent Peach Tree)." The description next to it was probably accurate, given the title, but I disagreed and promptly forgot the details. And since art is in the eye of the beholder, let me tell you what I see:


I see a Romeo & Juliet scene. The peach is Juliet on the balcony, and the flower-insect guy on one knee is Romeo. The crying "eye" (apple?) at the bottom, and the sinister tree trunk dude in the background contribute to the tragedy. And the guy with the guitar sketched in at the bottom is the narrator of the story.


The kneeling flower dude is really spectacular in person. I told Scott I want a tattoo of that...and I don't even want a tattoo!


I guess it's safe to say I enjoyed the museum. And of course, I know Scott did too!

Casual Friday

You have to work the Friday before Memorial Day. You don't want to go in. But hey - it's casual Friday. Maybe you'll get to practice your putting while you chat with clients.

Huh?


It's just another fabulous sight-seeing day here at the Hotel Watergate Tampa!

(I've got a whole thing to write about the Dali museum, and about the job offer I got today, but I'm tired and would prefer to enjoy my last 12 hours in the hotel)

It's All Watergate to Me

I'd like to believe that I'd point my computer monitor away from my office window... if I had an office window... and especially an office window that overlooked a hotel and a shared lobby! Still, if my camera had just a little more zoom we could be reading trade secrets right now.

I'd also like to believe that I wouldn't glare at hapless tourists taking my picture like this Alton Brown look-alike in the right corner of the second photo!

Then again, I'm sure these people would prefer to not be a tourist attraction. I guess not everyone gets what they want!

Aside from the bizarre view, the room is quite nice. Scott's got the AC cranked down to icicle level, but I deal with it because I keep the house so warm (*cough*cheap*cough*). I'm still not sure what our plans are for tomorrow. That's the great thing about vacation though. The world is our oyster!

Beds

Tuesday: wake up in a king-size bed a few hundred feet from the Gulf of Mexico

Wednesday: wake up in our own "little" queen-size bed, missing the fabulous down pillows in the hotel

Thursday: go to sleep in our third bed in as many days

Strange, no? I love vacation!

Postcard

Dear ________,

Vacation so far has been fabulous. The Gulf, as always, is impossibly blue. The weather has been practically perfect. And we have been as stress-free as possible. The only snag seems to be the complete lack of postcards that convey the awesomeness of where we are (or even ones that aren't generic FLORIDA postcards). We couldn't find any that we liked, so we made our own.

Wish you were here!

See you soon!

Scott & Jamie

Beach, Nap, Food, Repeat

Before our vacation, I had made very simple plans: beach, nap, food, repeat. Today, we spent a little under 2 hours at the beach, then showered and headed out to lunch at Aunt Rose's (where we also saw Gary and Aubrey and Laura). No nap. I've been in a sort of zombie trance for the past few hours, even after the tasty dinner we had at Scott's restaurant of choice.

I posted family pictures to my Facebook vacation album, but for here I thought I'd stick with another beach photo from last night. With a little editing, this picture might be really sweet.

If you'll excuse me, I'm off for cookies and then bed.

Please Don't Hate Me...

If it helps, future me already resents present me for this!

And Janette, I want you to know that I haven't stopped bird-watching just because I'm on vacation. In fact, here are a few pictures I took tonight ON THE BEACH OMG CAN YOU FREAKING BELIEVE IT?!?!?

To the Beach!

With stories like this, is it any wonder I'm escaping to the beach while I can? Who knows how long it'll be before we can do it again?

I'm sure vacation will be bittersweet, but boy are we looking forward to unplugging!

Vacation Paralyzation

It's getting to the point where we can book cheap last-minute vacations for our scheduled time off. And there's some pretty cheap deals out there. My problem? I'm burned out. All of a sudden those vacation ideas like NYC and DC aren't what I want. I don't want to have to think about travel or about itineraries. What I want is a cruise. But since we still don't have passports, that's out.

So...the beach?

Well, vacation is still far enough away that I don't know whether a Florida beach vacation on either coast is advisable. Damn oil spill!

And then I thought maybe we can find a cheap deal very locally, and have a Universal-Sea World staycation. We already have some Universal tickets, and Discovery Cove for 2 would still be cheaper than airfare anywhere else! Heck, I don't even WANT to swim with a dolphin. I just want to go snorkel and laze around and be take care of for the day!

Other than "out of the house," I don't know what Scott really wants. Maybe we can figure that out today.

Decision

Neither of the B&B's that I really liked online were available, and I took that as a sign.

We talked about it this morning, and Scott and I decided to put off our big vacation to Moab until this time next year, when we're hopefully in much better shape than we are now. The idea of hiking the trails of Arches or Canyonlands in my current lack of shape... I just think we'll get more out of it later on.

Make no mistake though, I will get to Dead Horse Point State Park before I die. I need to see this in person!
(plus, there's a brewery that makes "Dead Horse Ale" - you know we need that pint glass for our collection!!)

Don't feel sad for us. We're still going to GTFOH, we're just not sure where yet! One of the online travel sites - I think Travelocity - does last-minute discount packages all over the country. So depending on what's cheap, we're probably going to aim for the mid-Atlantic - NYC, Philly, or DC - for a long weekend.

Ad-Stalking

Let me start by just saying this: Google Ads, please stop looking at my cookies!

I was doing a little online research for a hypothetical vacation I'm planning to [the coolest place ever, OMG the pictures I'm going to come back with!] before work this morning. I was bouncing between Travelocity, Hotwire, and generic internet searches for hotels in the vicinity of [the coolest place ever, OMG the pictures I'm going to come back with!].

What a coincidence that, as I was going through various blogs this evening, I kept seeing the same ad for La Quinta popping up on sidebars. This happened to me once before that I was actually aware of, when I was window-shopping for faucets and then all of a sudden the same faucet I had clicked on on overstock.com suddenly appeared in a banner ad, and then another banner ad, and another.

I suppose it's really smart marketing. In this case though, it's kind of ridiculous. I checked into it - the La Quinta Inn in [the coolest place ever, OMG the pictures I'm going to come back with!] is $199/night. I think I'd rather stick with a bed & breakfast for half that, even if it means Scott will have to grit his teeth and play nice with strangers.

As for [the coolest place ever, OMG the pictures I'm going to come back with!], I don't want to give it away quite yet. For now, I'll just tell you that it's somewhere in the map below:

By the way, it's not that I'm being coy. I mean, I guess I am. But right now this is one of those things that seems full of magic and adventure, and it's all mine and Scott's. Once I tell the rest of the world, then it's like we have to share with everyone else. And politely accept input. And pretend we care that {insert obscure relative here} once planned to go there, but {broke/ruptured/sprained} {his/her} {body part} and had to cancel the trip.

Plus, it's a pretty major trip that I'm basically hypothetically planning with a month-ish window. I may get overwhelmed and decide to just get a plane/hotel/car package deal to a major city - NY, DC, and Chicago top that "b" list.

Oh, and I can't share too much, lest we get robbed while we're on vacation like all those morons who advertise all sorts of personal crap on the internet. I could quite possibly be one of those morons. But I'm really trying hard not to be.