Saturday, 19 March 2005: Despite wanting sleep more than anything, I had to wake up for class this morning. I don't like this whole Saturday class doohickey. It's really cutting into my beauty sleep. And, if you know me, you know I need as much beauty sleep as possible. Heh.

Friday, 18 March 2005: The part I always dread about a vacation... going home. I don't like it. I wanna stay. Or catch a different flight to some other place instead. Anywhere but home. I love our townhome, but returning to it means we must further endure the cold weather and going back to work. Hell, I'd rather be in Boise than at work.

We had a stopover in Pittsburgh which was not nearly as impressive an airport as Charlotte, but they did have a Lids hat store, so Katie and I purchased a Pirates hat (me) and a Red Sox hat (her). The salesman was really cool and was impressed by the fact I was already wearing a Red Sox hat and that Katie was buying one. Guess it helped that he was wearing one as well, eh? Well, he's a big Pittsburgh and Boston fan so we were able to talk sports with the guy for nearly a half hour while trying on hats. And, no, it was not just a two-way conversation between him and me as Katie can talk sports with the best of them.

When we got back to Illinois, Katie's dad picked us up and we ran out to Woodfield Mall to pick up a gift for her brother Steven's birthday. Then we made our way back to Geneva and had dinner at our fave pub Old Towne. It was our first time partaking in their fish and chips and they were well worth the wait. When we finally got back to our home, we just crashed. And hard. Sleep, beautiful sleep.

Thursday, 17 March 2005: It was raining yet again today (I must've jinxed us by talking about how perfect it was on the first day), so we went on a tour with Nano. She showed us this new town called The Villages which is a retirement community that is actually its own city. It started as two trailer homes in 1981 and is now well over 150,000 people and still growing. The city is just like Naperville, IL, in that it seems to swallow up more and more surrounding land and won't be sated until it runs out of places to grow. And I think both will still find a way to grow despite this minor speedbump.

It's kind of a weird place. Nearly a dozen golf courses and little "town squares" littered throughout that serve as shopping centers. They try to make them all look like port towns with faux piers and lighthouses and the like scattered around the squares and the shops are very high end. All we could really afford to do was catch a movie, so we saw The Aviator. Damn fine flick and one of Martin Scorsese's best in my opinion. And, if this were released in any other year than the same one that Ray came out, Leonardo DiCaprio would have run away with the Best Actor Oscar, no question.

That night was dedicated to a our last vacation dinner with Nano and more card playing and talking. Good times.

Wednesday, 16 March 2005: Katie and I woke up today fully intending to go to Clearwater and hang out on the beach. So we woke up early and snuck into the living room to turn on the TV and check out the Weather Channel. There wasn't a single spot on their map of Florida that was immune to the little thunderstorm icon. Even the Gulf was becoming a bit oversaturated. Yeah, so much for the beach.

So we started to do some homework. Yes, despite being on vacation, we both had homework to do. Heck, Katie had to work on a take-home test that is due this coming Tuesday. Sick and wrong, I know. But you gotta do what you gotta do.

When Nano finally woke up, we went out to do some shopping and pick up the photos of our townhome that we took to show her the new place (and, yes, these photos are now posted). We came home and went for a walk around the Country Club where she lives and she took us out to this lake at the end of her street which is very popular with fishermen including Pop Pop. Apparently, on an island across this thin strip of a canal, there is a fourteen-foot alligator. Few people have actually seen it because it prefers to hide. I found it. I could only really see the trunk of its body at first, but, as I moved around, I could see its legs and its tail slithering up and over some tree roots.

On our way home, it began to sprinkle again. As soon as we set foot on Nano's front porch, it downpoured. And it really never let up the rest of the night. So much for the "ideal" weather, eh?

That night we just talked and played cards and dominos for hours. It was a lot of fun.

Tuesday, 15 March 2005: Today was Katie's and my day to visit Universal Studios. Katie has been there before, but it's been a while. And I've only been to Universal Hollywood. Well, we bought the Express Pass that they now offer and, let me tell you, it was worth the extra $20 per ticket. We skipped past all the lines on all the major rides (except Shrek 4D which doesn't allow use of the Express Pass presumably because it's brand new) and saved so much time. We had all the major rides and exhibits done by 1:30 and we got there at 10:30. We did the E.T. ride, Back to the Future, T2 in 3D (blech), The Mummy, Twister, Men In Black: Alien Attack, Jaws, Earthquake, and even had lunch at the Hard Rock Cafe all in three hours' time. Pretty nice.

While we were there, we called our friends Chris ("Mojo") and Gabriela who live in Orlando and they agreed to meet us out on the Universal City Walk at 7:30 for drinks and dinner. So we took in some more of the sights, went shopping, and rode The Mummy one more time (it was that good). When all that was said and done, it was still only 4:30. so we went to see Robots. Not a great movie by any stretch of the imagination. Cute, I suppose. But it just goes to show that any animation studio out there pales in comparison to Pixar in terms of having quality animation and scripting. Pixar can do no wrong.

When we came out of the theater, it was pouring rain. And I mean pouring. We bought a golf umbrella at Margaritaville (works out nice since I need a new umbrella for my golf bag) and waited for Chris and Gabriela. When they arrived, I was relieved to see that Chris' hairline has receded a little bit as well. Sweet vindication is mine! Seriously, though, we went to Pat O'Briens for dinner and had to contend with the overpoweringly loud piano playing of two wannabes who kept belting out popular piano tunes and making us long for sweet silence. Afterwards, we went to City Jazz and watched Herb Williams and his band play. They were much better.

We didn't get back to Nano's place until nearly midnight and she was still awake. Night owls.

Monday, 14 March 2005: Today, we had no idea what to do. So Nano (my grandmother as I've always referred to her) suggested we go to the flea market with her. This is something my family does almost everytime we go down to Florida. Sometimes you find some good stuff, sometimes you find nothing but crap. Perhaps I've become a bit more discerning in my (relatively) old age, but it all seemed like crap. Nano warned us. But we still had fun.

And a tip for any law enforcement officers out there... if you want to make a big bust, go to these flea markets. You'd be amazed how many copyright violations I saw on sale there. Copies of Diary of a Mad Black Woman and The Pacifier available on DVD already? I don't think so. They've only been in theaters a couple weeks each. There were many others as well.

Oh, and it started raining on the way there. Let up while we were there. And then picked up again towards the end of our visit.

After the flea market, we went to the Florida National Cemetery where Pop Pop (my grandfather as I've always referred to him) is buried. Like any National Cemetery, it's absolutely stunning in terms of how it looks, how it's laid out, and how it's maintained. I find it difficult to get weepy in National Cemeteries. I dunno if it has something to do with the feeling of national pride you get from seeing all these veterans in one place or maybe it's just because I become overwhelmed by the aesthetic beauty of the place. I've always loved the symmetry of how the headstones are laid out. All in perfect rows no matter which direction you look in. Of course I took some pictures. Go fig. Me on a vacation without a camera? Yeah, right.

Thankfully it didn't rain while we were at the Cemetery.

Sunday, 13 March 2005: If it weren't for the fact that we were leaving for Florida today, I'd be bitching and moaning about the fact that I'm not being given the opportunity to sleep in on my one and only day that I have available just for that purpose. Early flights, bah!

Our flight for Florida departed at 10 a.m. today out of O'Hare Airport and we had a stopover in Charlotte, N.C. One heckuva stopover, too. Nearly three hours. Thankfully, Charlotte International Airport is gorgeous inside. Yeah, I said "gorgeous" and "Airport" in the same breath, and meant it. When did airports become shopping malls? I can find more stuff here than at Charlestown Mall. It's great! I love it!

When we finally got to Orlando, we got our rental car (a fully loaded Ford Taurus... hey! Don't laugh. It's a pretty nice car) and drove our way up to Wildwood. It's a drive we should be familiar with by now, but it still seems so foreign. It's amazing how much an area can change in such a short time. But we did get there and with little to no problems.

Man, did we pick the right time of year to come down here. This is my kind of weather. Sunny, slight breeze, low humidity, mid 70s temperatures. This is the life. And we get to visit Nano. We've missed her.