32 posts tagged “vacation”
I laughed every single day, from morning to midnight, and had a fantastic time but now that I'm home its quiet and routine. What I once found comfort in is a little dulled by the sand and sunny memories of my friends and our week together on the shore.
It's a trip I'll never forget.
Hope you guys have a great one!
I've been planning a trip down to Florida to attend a friends wedding. Occasionally I would look at airfare and watch for deals and this morning I almost fell over in shock when I saw a round trip ticket to Tampa for $28! That's no typo folks... twenty eight smackaroos.
Within ten minutes I had my flight booked... here is the billing breakdown:
Airfare: $27.90
Taxes: $2.10
Segment Fees: $7.20
PFC: $9.00
911 Security: $5.00
Convenience Fee: $13.50
Checked Baggage: $30.00
TOTAL: $94.70
No longer than two hours later the airfare price changed from $28 to $155, so I got in there just in time. It's still a cheap flight now but this morning at $15 dollars each way it was quite possibly the deal of the century.
As I sit in my frozen office, typing with gloved hands and wrapped in a wool coat, I can comfortably dream of the warm Florida sun knowing that in 3 months I'll bask in it's glow. And I will be able to fly there for less than the cost of fuel!
Dec 22nd : Beach Day
First day in Florida and spent on the beach.
Dec 24th : Fish-eye Fog
Foggy morning weather, lighthouse and fish-eye.
Dec 25th : Christmas Day
The holiday gathering, emotions and overall reaction of my family's DVD gifts.
Dec 27th : A Day w/Mom
Hike along stump pass and a sunset to die for.
Dec 27th : Old Friends
My homecoming and an evening with a few old friends.
Dec 28th : Home Sweet Home
Back home, safe and sound.
A two hour drive south and I'm all ohhs and ahhhs about the changes in scenery. It has been about five years since I've been back to my home town. The population growth of south west Florida is nothing new to me, having lived in a quickly developing area for over twenty years, but dammed if I wasn't shocked and amazed at how much had changed since I had been gone. Towering buildings, shopping centers, mansions galore... I could hardly recognize the place.
Once I had gotten over the shock of if it all I headed to the surf shop (our old teenage hot spot) to meet a few friends, the shop hadn't changed much and neither had its customers. We met up with Captain Scuba-Steve (a childhood friend) and Tracey (my college roommate) with her boyfriend Leo in tow. We all had lots of catching up to do and we spent the afternoon and into the evening over beach-side drinks and good conversation. It was so good to see my friends, to set comfortably into my old social crowd and just be me. There were a number of people who had wanted me to stop by and say hello while in town, but as daylight faded and we watched the sunset fall I still hadn't left the side of my two best buds.
Maybe another year, maybe another trip.
It was our last day with my Mom so we took her to one of her favorite spots for a nice long walk along the inner-coastal and out to the pass to watch the boats go by. She was all smiles.
We walked from the afternoon into the evening and even stayed to watch the sunset. Mom sat down and took a moment to play with the camera while we went hunting for sharks teeth along the shore, she managed to snap this shot which was a nice surprise when I had the film developed, thanks mom.
I had been so excited to see all of my family on Christmas that I guess I had worked up my expectations. I thought this year would be more emotional, since my grandfathers passing, but it wasn't, in fact it felt a bit rushed and cold. People ate, in reality they stuffed their faces as quickly as possible, and rushed onto desert right after. This is nothing like Christmas in the past, it usually took about ten people to repeat that dinner was served before the others would quit chatting and pay attention to the food. After diner everyone would linger, sit down and talk some more. By the time it was all over most of us had soar throats from doing so much talking the whole day. It was eerily quiet, with a few awkward comments here and there.
I gave away the DVDs, Grandmom wanted a whole formal presentation, but people didn't respond the way I had expected, I recieved a couple of nice comments but instead of tearing off the bows and begging to watch the movies, like I had expected, they just set them down nicely beside them and went on to eat desert. My Grandmother was a little crushed because of everyones reaction so she nominated the idea that we sit and watch the DVDs, at that people started walking away and hinting that we open gifts instead. I'm sure they appreciate the work that I've done and I understand the hesitation and the awkwardness that people felt, but I would have so much rather had a bunch of crying emotional family members by my side than these lifeless silent strangers.
Emotions aside, it was a beautiful Christmas, the food was fantastic, it was sunny and breezy, everyone was healthy and looked happy. The grandchildren (my generation) seemed the carry the whole day, we kept the conversations going, we added life to our silent parents and it seemed to work well that way. It's amazing to see my cousins grow up so quickly, they are all in their twenties and all of them taller than me (the second oldest).
From the moment I stepped foot in Florida I could only think about
putting my toes in the sand, I really missed that feeling so much. Just
as planned our first day was spent lounging on the beach. it was a
prefect day; a cool ocean breeze, full sun and some of the most
picturesque skies I've seen in a long while. I brought along my
fish-eye lomo camera, a christmas gift from Jon, and went hog wild.
