Feel the warmth

We had a very nice stretch of weather with only that brief 2 hour rain and temps in the 80's during our entire week in FLA.  We all enjoyed wearing shorts and hope the weather is finally turning up North.

We really enjoyed our stay at the Cabana Beach resort.  The pools and grounds were great.  It had the usual problems that everything is exobitantly priced but not any different than Disney or any other resort property we have stayed at... The only other downside was that it was hosting about a billion high school students from across the country that were down competing in a DECA competition.  Not the quietest crowd at night....

We had hit almost all of the rides at both Universal Parks at this point - so it was now a case of going back and doing our favorites a few more times before we wrapped up the vacation.  There is some debate in the order but the consensus top three rides were...

1. Simpsons
2. Revenge of the Mummy
3. Escape from Gringotts

Ride designers at Universal seem to have an obsession with spraying you in the face with water as a way to startle you on rides as it seemed like every other ride involved getting water in the face.

We also completed the ButterBeer trifecta by polishing off the frozen variety (previously sampling the regular and hot varieties).

As we had an early flight out of Tampa - I made the self-sacrifice of skipping the Sammy Hagar concert at the Hard Rock that night and heading back to Tampa around 6pm.  It is about an hour and 15 minute drive to Tampa and we ended up getting dinner in the historic Ybor City section of Tampa - which was an interesting part of the city.

We then hit our last hotel of the trip - a  souless Homewood Suites next to the airport that featured a piece of cloth covering springs that masqueraded as a sleeper sofa mattress.  I think everybody is going to be happy sleeping in their own beds !  

Overall a great vacation !

The Best Laid Plans of Mice and Men

Fortunately we are hitting Universal at a non-peak time - so crowds have been more than manageable.  However you never want to come to any theme park without a plan.  You need a plan for getting on the hottest rides with the minimum wait time, a food plan, transportation plan and a plan to rob a bank when you get home to pay for it all.  In the Prologue post - I noted that vacation planning become more complicated now that we have teenagers.  On the positive end, Jake has started to take over many of the daily planning aspects that usually fell on me to handle.  He came prepared with a park plan today to make sure we hit all the rides on our list and put all the water rides right before our Celtics game lunch break - so we could change out of our wet clothes.  Here is everybody getting ready for the water ride.. as you can see - some are more excited than others..

Earlier this year - I went midnight skiing and noticed that at my age - I was an outlier in the demographics.  That is starting to be the case in these thrill rides - as you see less and less people of "our age" on these rides.  Luckily Karen is still a trooper and likes to ride - so we can still go an almost all rides as a family.  I certainly feel slightly nauseous after most rides and my days of the really extreme coasters are pretty much behind me unless I am double dog dared.  

When planning this trip - Jake also noted that Orlando had been granted an expansion franchise in the MLS and would be playing a home game during our trip.  So we took off from the rest of the gang and went to the Orlando City v Toronto FC match in the Citrus Bowl.  If was a great crowd (>30k) and we had a good time and met our two sporting event minimum for the trip !

Of course no trip would be complete without a trip to Krispy Kreme.  Jake and I stopped at a shop on the way home from the soccer match to pick up some donuts for the morning.  Not that I am opposed to paying $5.25 for a small cinnamon role at the cafe at our hotel but thought the kids would enjoy the change of pace !

Masters of the Universe

Our last trip down to Orlando in 2011 - we hit both Universal and Disney.  This time around we had to choose.   In general Universal has a bit more to to keep the older teens entertained and also easier to do in a 3-day window.  Our only hesitation was that Brett will not have the same Disney connections/memories as the other kids.  That is one of the downsides of the youngest child, as the family starts to move on and forces you go grow up a bit faster...

One of the advantages of staying on Universal property is the ability to enter the parks an hour before the general public and be able to hit the popular Harry Potter attractions before they get crowded.  There is a shuttle bus that runs from our hotel but there is also a nice walking path that takes about 15 minutes to walk.   The park opened at 7AM.  The kids voted to take the shuttle - the kids lost the vote.  Nothing like a sunrise walk to the park.

As a big fan of the Simpsons I was happy that they expanded the area of the park dedicated to the characters from that show.  The ride is still the same from the last time we were here and also the same as the one in Hollywood but it is still a good ride.

They have also enhanced the Harry Potter area with a very cool train that runs between the two Universal Parks.  Brett enjoyed this train much more than Amtrak and also enjoyed the ButterBeer. I have a long list of geeky/dorky things that I do but I draw the line at wands.  I think when adults venture into wands and/or spandex they hit a new level.  

After a full day at the parks - we headed back to the hotel for a bit of pool time.  We then went to the NBA restaurant on CityWalk.  This is the weakest theme restaurant in the world.  The restaurant has a few NBA pictures on the wall, a pop-a-shot in the lobby and a leather covered menu and that is about all that distinguishes it from an Applebee's - except  the Applebee's have better TVs.  They don't even have a Kevin Stacom Sandwich on the menu. Weak !

We returned to the hotel at 10pm and Brett closed down the Lazy River at 11pm.  The same Lazy River that sells tubes that you can use on the river for $15.  An approximate profit margin of 1,500,000%.  

Moving Day

I had not run since my morning jaunt to get the Washington Monument tickets - so I ventured out for a morning run.  My body was not used to the heat/humidity of FLA and it was rough going but it was good to work up a sweat.

We were still a bit torched and nobody was enthusiastic about hitting the beach or the pool - so we decided to head to Orlando a bit earlier than planned.  It was a nice relaxing few days in Clearwater and the girls are certainly in favor of returning.

On the way out of town we were looking for a place for breakfast/lunch.  We passed the Country Skillet that had a sign that said "World's Best Breakfast".  This always reminds me of the scene in Elf where Will Ferrell congratulates the guy in the coffee shop for making the worlds best cup of coffee.  We decided we wanted to recreate that scene.  None of us thought that it was the best breakfast we have ever had...

The other food disappointment of this trip has been the lack of ice cream.  We tried to rectify this on the road to Orlando by stopping at Twistee Treat.  

We arrived at Universal in the later afternoon and checked into our hotel - the Cabana Bay Beach resort.  The hotel looks like it has a bunch of fun stuff to do and we can walk to Universal.  Should be a fun few days.

Ski and Sox

It was beautiful sunrise here in Clearwater but after getting a bit too much sun yesterday - we were almost relieved when a t-storm came through late morning and gave us an excuse to stay indoors for a few hours.  We had a late breakfast and did some tourist shopping in town.  By lunchtime the storm had passed and the kids had been looking forward to going out on jet-skis that were available to rent at our hotel.  

It was my first time on a jet-ski and they were a ton of fun to drive around the inter coastal.  The only downside was they restricted the area that you could drive them.  I was hoping to be a bit more adventurous but I am sure they have had problems with people getting in trouble in the past. 

We spent the rest of the afternoon at the pool and doing some reading.  I am finishing up Al Michaels memoir "You Can't Make this Stuff Up".  A good read for sports fans. 

For our evening activity - we were going to the Red Sox- Tampa Bay Rays baseball games.  The Rays do not draw many fans and there are a ton of New England transplants down here plus vacationers - so the crowd was about 50/50.  We had seats in the third row in right field and had a great time despite the Rays winning on a walk off double in the bottom of the ninth.  The girls were just thrilled it did not go into extra innings.  The game was made more interesting by the crowd sitting around us..  We had 20 Venezuelan nationals behind us that would go wild anytime Pablo Sandoval would do anything (he is from Venezuela).  In front of us we had a family who, if they have not been on the Jerry Springer show, should be booked immediately.  

Pool Boy

This was the part of the vacation that was planned by the girls in the family and aimed to increase our relaxation quotient.  We were staying on the water on Sand Key - next to Clearwater Beach.  The  girls had visions of pool boys and spas dancing in their head.  We woke to a glorious morning with a nice view from our room. There are dolphins and manatees swimming by.....

At least some of use woke up.. others chose to sleep in a bit after the two day blitz through DC  Karen and I had a nice walk (more walking !) into Clearwater to get some supplies and scout restaurants.

Although there is a very nice beach - we spent most of our day by the pool.  Mostly because nobody at the beach was walking around serving you food and beverages.  There is also nothing quite like people watching at a hotel pool.  Typically over time most towns or sections of cities get homogeniezed as people tend to congregate with others that have similar behaviors.   The hotel pool is a melting pot of people and you can begin to build some cartoonish stereotypes of the folks who congregate by pools.   Below are my three favorite categories of species.

1. Coppertone Twins.  A couple that looks like they have been sitting by the pool tanning since the Truman administration.  They eat prunes and look like raisins.   Generally doubling down on their efforts to get cancer by smoking.   The man's swimwear is cringeworthy.

2.  Bachelor Party Guys.  For obvious reasons - we generally frequent family friendly pools with watersides, etc.   There is usually a group of 4-6 single guys in their 30's that behave as if is an all-inclusive adult-only resort.  What made you pick this hotel ?  Was it the Arts and Crafts by the pool in the afternoon ?  They sit waist deep in the pool with their cocktail of choice and are high on the obnoxious scale.  They walk around like they are Channing Tatum but are generally 50lbs overweight.   In general, I think they need more mirrors by pools (too judgy ?).  

3.  Drowning Duo.  A couple that had 2-3 kids in rapid succession that are now ages 2-5 and this is their first real vacation together.   They are clearly not ready for prime time.  A tremendous of amount of yelling, crying and running around and that is just the parents.  It is stressful just watching them and you have child welfare services on speed dial.   You are just praying that they were smart enough to buy the swim diapers.

After we cooked our skin for a sufficient period of time and had a spirited game of family pool volleyball - we all cleaned up and headed out to a nice dinner in town.  It is great to be able to eat in the open air after a long winter back home.  

Day 1 in FL was a success and it was nice to be able to relax and recharge.  

A Monumental Day

he one thing that registered some level of excitement across all family demographics was going up into the Washington Monument.  Ascending the Washington Monument requires a ticket.  A ticket requires getting up real early and standing in line as the time slots are given out on a first-come basis starting at 8:30 and sell out quickly.  I have spent the night sleeping on sidewalks for dumber things like Van Halen tickets and Wii Game Systems – so this was no big deal.  It was a glorious sun splashed 4 mile run to the monument from our hotel and I arrived at 7:30AM and was about the 100^th person in line.  By 8:30 there were probably 300 people in line.  With 2:00pm time slot tickets in hand – I triumphantly jumped on the Metro and returned to our hotel.

The game plan for the day was to hit all the major monuments/memorials. The start was the Lincoln Memorial – a classic and favorite of my wife.

We then walked through the Vietnam, Korean and WWII memorials that were each impressive and sobering.  

Next stop on the tour was the White House – we were held up briefly from walking in front – as there was something going on the White House lawn.   Walking by it is amazing that people have been able to hope the fence and get all the way up to the White House.   The kids kept me amused during the walk to the Washington monument telling me what a terrible president that I would make.   There is no question I would be a one term president.

The Washington Monument was worth the early morning wait and the views of the surrounding area were spectacular.  

As a test of our kids patience we decided to squeeze in a quick visit to the National Arts Museum before hitting the airport.  No wonder the kids don’t want me to be president.   On the positive end – we ended up with only a $.20 balance on our Metro cards – so at least I have my fiscal house in order ! 

Smooth sailing to the airport.  Thankfully we were taking JetBlue to Tampa so that we could watch the Celtics all the way down... made it a quick flight.  

Bad Field Trip

Our first of two days in DC, the forecast called for the potential of some morning rain - so we decided to make this our Smithsonian Day.   We planned on hitting three separate musuems during the day (Natural History, American History and Air and Space).  Turns out it was sunny and beautiful all day - so we had no need for any rain gear that I lugged around.

After some morning complaining between Brett and Jake about bed hogging, we hit the hotel breakfast buffet hard before hitting the Metro station near the hotel.   The Natural History and American History both had interesting exhibits and you can't beat the price.  However not everybody in our party was excited about this leg of our trip.  A few hours into our visit Brett declared "this is not a vacation, this is a bad field trip".

All the sites were crawling with Massachusetts folks and we even ran into people we knew from our home town.  I was also surprised how many families were there with their toddler/grade school kids.  I think the DC experience is mostly lost on that age group but it is apparently lost on my 8th grader as well...

Overall I enjoyed the Air and Space the most of the three Smithsonian's that we visited that day.  They had a wide variety of commercial and military aircraft there.  Although I was a bit surprised on how dated most of the movies were in the little theatre displays by the exhibits.  There was one that was narrated/hosted by Willard Scott that must have been made 35 years ago.  They also had an exhibit on  satellite technology that was suppose to impress me on how I could zoom in towards my house.  Of course Google Earth can do it 20x better right from desktop.  

An impressive thunderstorm rolled in (along with tornado warning) right before we were going to go our for dinner - so we stayed in and had dinner at the hotel restaurant.  A good decision for everybody but my wallet.  

Throw Bretto From the Train

As noted in the prologue, a motivation for the DC leg was being able to have a train adventure.  At some point I am sure I started to amalgamate my desire for a train ride with the kids yearning. This became apparent about two hours into the 7 hour trip when the novelty and romance of riding the rails quickly wore thin on the troops.   Especially after we realized that we left the two iPads loaded with their movies and TV shows sitting back at the house.

Kelsey still smiling as we pass through NYC

The fact that the train Wifi was about as fast a 56K modem did not help the overall mood - especially of my youngest.  He spent a good portion of the trip questioning my fitness as a parent and decision making.   He could not understand why anybody would choose to take a mode of transportation that would take 7 hours when another was available that would only take 1 hour.  Luckily I was able to distract him for a bit by streaming the Celtics playoff game to my phone.  I thoroughly enjoyed the experience and while certainly not as efficient as riding the rails in Europe it was a nice experience.

We pulled into Union station in DC about 30 minutes late (~6pm) and grabbed a car out to our hotel in Arlington VA.  We were staying at a Embassy Suites - that has two beds and a pull out coach.  That use to be more than enough for our family of 5 but as the kids grow to larger sizes it is becoming a bit  tighter.

We headed out to dinner at a small mall around the corner and discovered a Hurricane simulator that the kids had to try out.  Not the worst $2 that I ever spent....

We headed back to the hotel to get ready for our museum day in DC.

TPA - Prologue

Vacation planning was a simpler task before our children started to develop and express opinions.  Previously I only had to convince my tolerant wife that an itinerary that 6 different hotels in a 7 day ‘vacation’ is not as bad as it sounds.  Now I had a 15 year old daughter that was yearning for a vacation that did not involve tracking down the World’s Best Corn Dog or visiting an obscure minor league stadium because it is Chevy Chase bobble head night.

As this is the last Spring that we will where the kids will have the same school vacation – we wanted to embark on one more adventure.  The girls were promoting a beach vacation in the Caribbean or Mexico.  The boys thought that sounded worse than having to watch a season of “Say Yes to the Dress” and wanted  more amusement.  The impending college tuition bill for Jake had me thinking Staycation !

We ultimately ended up with a bit of a compromise that will hopefully provide a little bit of what everyone wants and a healthy dose of what they might not be their first choice but will ultimately be memorable and educational. 

The itinerary begins by taking the train down to Washington DC.  This checks off two things that we have always wanted to do with the kids and never seem to get around to it.  We will spend two days in the Nation’s Capitol and then fly to Tampa.  We will stay on the beach in Clearwater FL, fulfilling the girls wish to spend some relaxation time.  The final stop will be in Orlando – where we will stay on Universal and check off the thrill seeker portion of the wish list.  We then fly back to Boston after three days in Orlando.  So 9 days total – essentially three days each segment.

So in the end – we will be taking a train, plane and automobile in an effort to satisfy all the constituents.   I am sure it will be another memorable trip.