Clearly when you are on vacation, besides a place to sleep, is the issue of meals. I strongly dislike eating out with the kids. Spending $50 on a meal that I could've prepared for less than $10 absolutely kills me. The solution- a crockpot and cooler. Even though our motel room was pintsized, it included a small fridge and a microwave a little bigger than a sardine can on top. Jon is accustomed to eating lunches at nice restaurants with people wearing dress clothes. I, on the other hand, am accustomed to a cup of coffee for breakfast and random scraps for lunch. These are not the kinds of standards that have a problem with sitting on the curb at a motel eating dinner from a crockpot on a paper plate. But then I also enjoy shopping at Goodwill and playing tag with the kids on the lawn of the Kennedy Space Center. Jon finds himself mortified by his wife on a regular basis. I do refrain from wearing my lime green crocs in public when in the company of my dear husband- but I digress. Back to vacation meals. Did you know that Reynolds makes liners for your crockpot? After dinner, you lift out the liner and voila! The cleanup is done. However, the liners don't remove the smell in your cooler from the chopped onions and garlic which arrived fresh to the hotel room and the smell remains long after the vegetables are cooked and consumed. Don't forget the box of baking soda! Milk and cereal are a disaster waiting to happen as Caroline demonstrated by dumping a loaded bowl on the floor. Next time I'll stick with cereal bars or cream cheese and bagels for breakfast. Did you know that Cocoa, Fl. does not have a single StarBucks? I didn't realize civilization was possible without one, and where are we supposed to get fabulous coffee and wireless? Certainly not at our motel which boasted in room phones as one of their special features.
The ultimate point of our trip was to visit with my grandmother (whom I renamed Grams at some point in my childhood) and my great grandmother (known as Little Grandma for reasons beyond my knowledge). However, since I wanted the memory of our visit to be pleasant long after we were gone, I decided that several brief encounters rather than days on end would be best. Thus we spent two days at the Kennedy Space Center-where with six kids in tow we created a sensation every where we went, and saw Grams at breakfast or dinner each day, where we tried to avoid sensations. This worked very well. I think Grams decided that she had six decently behaved great-grandchildren by the time we pulled out of Cocoa and headed for Ft. Meyers.
We didn't go on a family vacation last year. I had Vivian in May, and quite frankly after a rotten school year was not up to the challenge of hauling the kids somewhere. So the kids were really excited about going to Florida and seeing the sights. Charles the Disgusting, discovered that he had a trapped audience when using public bathrooms. He enjoyed making lots of grunting noises, announcing his toilet delivery as it dropped, and proudly proclaiming when he was finished and in the process of wiping his keester. Unfortunately, since Jonathan was the one to accompany Charles to the bathrooms, we were not aware of this development until we were driving to Ft. Meyers. Charles grinned proudly waiting for the compliments. Yuck! Other bathroom habits of our family- Caroline can spend longer in the bathroom than the time it takes 4 other family members to get through. Also, Gabriel pretends to be uncomfortable in public, always requesting to go back home, and remaining in a general state of morose annoyance. If a kid can load his pants, he's perfectly comfortable in his surroundings. Gabriel is very, VERY, comfortable anywhere.
Vivian started teething with a vengance the day before we left Atlanta. One tooth has poked through thus far. Generally, she's been rather irritable, and given to throwing her head around violently. The Be Still command has been a definite help.
Jon and I love the beach best in the evening. No chance of everyone burning, the crowds are gone, the breeze is fabulous, and the sunsets are beautiful though not over the water on the East side of Florida. The first evening, after unloading our stuff at the unfortunate motel, we loaded the kids up and headed for the beach. The entire time we were driving the kids wanted to know, will they see a shark. Our answer-No!-so stop talking about it. We arrived in good time, parked and headed for the sand. After 30 minutes of walking along the shore, lo and behold, a shark was wandering around very close to the shoreline. We had to shout to a couple kids to get out of the water. One tyke around the age of 3 or 4 was right close to the shark. I ran up to the water and shouted to him to get out. I didn't bodily remove him, because he was a rather sizable kid, and I thought that it might impede the promptness of his removal from the water to have a stranger take hold of him. He did respond promptly, but when I turned to shout to his Dad several yards off, the kid returned immediately to the water. I think the sun had fried his brain already. Fortunately, the shark had decided to head for the larger meatier kids past the toddler, who were more responsive to our shouts of shark, and the dad hustled the kid out. No one ended up being nibbled by the shark, though it did make the evening news, and our kids was ecstatic to be a part of the action.
We have listened to 9 Eliot Engel lecture tapes since leaving Atlanta. The lectures are on different authors- Chaucer, Poe, Dickens, Bronte sisters, Clemens (Twain), etc. Definitely helps keep the driver awake and the little kids asleep.
Must get to sleep. Shall type more tomorrow.
