Vacation. Part 2 - Easter

In this family vacations always begin with road trips; a van packed with luggage, strollers, cameras, DVDs, toys, and sleepy human beings. Our road trips always have three common elements: the Get-to-the-State-First game (only the people in the front can play), Waffle House, and one DVD played no less than three times.

The "State" game consist of reaching out onto the dash board as possible in order to get into the next state first. The game is rife with subterfuge and trickery such as spiking brakes to "lock-up" the other persons seat belt (Lisa, on more than one occasion), faking a crisis, or pretending to have already crossed the state line. I once convinced Lisa that she missed the state line during her cat nap so she paid no attention when we actually crossed.

Trips also consist of at least one stop at a Waffle House - waffles, eggs, coffee, hash browns, toast, and meat all in one meal. This used to be a treat when we drove down from New York because we've never seen a Waffle House north of the Mason Dixon line. It's still a treat to people watch at Waffle House. The staff is always cast the same; an overweight cook with a grease stained apron, an impossibly too old waitress who insists on calling everyone at the table, "Dear," "Hon," or "Sweetie," and a restaurant full of truckers, families, and local geezers.

We arrived in Homosassa, Florida on Good Friday to spend all of Saturday with Lisa's sister and her family. It was the first time we'd all been together in one place at one time since Christmas 2007. We had a traditional Easter dinner and egg hunt a day early as well as taking liberal use of the boat and kayak. TJ quickly got the hang of hunting for Easter eggs and would then re-hide what he had found, usually behind just one seat cushion, although I imagine that Betty will continue to find plastic eggs for sometime to come.

The highlight of the easter weekend, before driving to Orlando, was getting up at 6:00 am to watch the space shuttle launch. I had never seen a rocket launch before, so I offered to drive the family from the west coast of Florida to the east coast of Florida to see it. Naturally, when they found out the launch was at 6:20 am, Lisa and Sam both bailed on the idea. I, of course, was curious if I'd be able to see from over 200 miles away. I mean, what's there to see from that far away, right?

I found myself standing on my mother-in-laws dock at 6:00ish in the morning, not really knowing which way to look and not knowing exactly what to look for. After 15 minutes of feeling like I lost an hour of good sleep I was about to go in when I saw it. WOW. From the opposite coast it was as bright as a roman candle on top of a thick pillar of smoke. I ran inside an woke my slumbering wife who ran out in the dark with me. We were able to see the shuttle rise as the separation of the solid rocket boosters glowed a neon fluoresent blue in the pre-sunrise sky as it moved off into space. (This morning I learned that shuttle program is being phased out later this year and that I may never see something like that again.)

Next stop Orlando!