Recovered

Vacations don't come very often around here, much less vacations that last a week or more.  We tend to find our relaxation in the wildness and loneliness that surrounds our home.  So when my folks decided to take their family on vacation to Florida, we jumped at the opportunity.  Let's just say up front, though, that I'm not very good at planning. 

I'm more of a "fly by the seat of your pants" kind of traveler.  You know, the kind of traveler that drags her husband to southern Florida on a hastily planned honeymoon and winds up just north of South Beach in a community marked by those who speak only Hebrew with only one discernible restaurant filled with men in rhinestone sunglasses and their ladies that were probably well paid.  (Please note that the above is not that South Beach hotel, but rather a lovely lake house where we spent the first days of our vacation with good friends.)

Or that kind of traveler that picks a random adults only hotel in Key West, checks in with her hubby, gets a fruity drink and sits down in the middle of a pornography shoot without even realizing it.  Danish Cowboy was impressed that I didn't mind sitting in a crowd of a naked hot chicks.  He obviously married well.

Oblivion tends to be my strong suit when traveling.  Rarely do people rely on me to do the travel agent-ing on a trip we are taking.   

So thank goodness for a dear mother and sister who took care of all the details and for a good friend who made it so that we could avoid the rental car counter.  Danish Cowboy is a sucker and often falls for the rental insurance gimmick that they sell.

They did it all for us, quite literally.  On days one and two we fished for catfish, scouted for alligators, campfired, and took part in my kids' first visit ever to the ocean courtesy of good family friends.

For the remainder of the week we did Disney and we did it well.  It was a long time dream of my parents to have us there once more as a family.

Everything from the moment we landed in Orlando until we left Orlando went just fine.  The traveling there part (you know, the only part that I had to orchestrate), was a disaster (although I did learn about Donchian Trading very, very late at night from a co-traveler).  We arrived in Florida at 3:45 in the morning.  We spent 48 hours trying to fly to Billings from Florida.  My family was rescheduled on approximately 10 different flights on a particular Saturday in December.  We got home on Sunday.  We didn't get our bags until Thursday.  Note to self:  don't fly through Minneapolis in the middle of winter.

The airline disaster is a thing of distant memory now.  I look back at the pictures of my kids with their new friends and their cousin, and remember the joy and excitement that they had throughout the trip.

The promise of seeing an elusive Mickey,

the look of awe at seeing that princesses really do exist,

and the spending of quality moments with family and friends made the trip a memorable one for all time.

 

We saw fabricated ideas that inspire your imagination and soak up your money, and the realities of nature all in one week.

 

And through it all was the wonder that the world has to offer.

No one is immune to the feeling of wonder.

No one.