Florida Getaway

Is there anything better than a vacation?  Well, yes, when it's a long-overdue vacation.  Kelly and I got away for five days to Orlando.  It was the first time in three years that I've flown without kids and I guess I didn't realize how difficult being a flying mom is.  Security this time was a breeze.  I didn't have to remove and put on 8 shoes, manage four boarding passes, get enough security baskets for all our backpacks, portable DVD player, snacks, and jackets.  I just walked right through the metal detector all by myself, put on my own shoes (and Kelly put his own on, too), grabbed my bag and we were off.  I actually read a book on the plane.  Ha!  It was a world that I had completely forgotten existed.  Really, that alone was a vacation.  But there was more!

We went to Universal Studios because a co-worker of Kelly's offered us free tickets.  I know we wouldn't have gone otherwise.  Our favorite ride was the Simpsons.  The details were perfect and it was one of those rides where the waiting in line is almost as good as the ride.  Really, all we needed was TV screens showing clips of the show and we were laughing in line.

The highlight of our sightseeing, though, was Epcot.  I have always wanted to go there and I was really glad to be there without kids.  Disneyland is absolutely made for kids, but Epcot is an experience that (my kids, at least) aren't old enough to appreciate.

The best food of our trip was at Epcot.  We ate dinner in Morocco and it was fun and delicious.  I was hoping to eat with my hands, but it wasn't quite THAT authentic.  I watched the other tables to make sure that utensils were the status quo and I didn't see a single person using their hands (again, very different from traveling with kids) so I reluctantly picked up my fork and ate all my couscous.

The best part of our trip, though, was just being together and sitting by the pool.  I finally got to lie on hot cement and after a few days in Florida, I warmed up.  It was HOT there, but it felt so good to my cold bones that I couldn't get enough.  We spent most of our time by the pool.  I finished two books (TWO BOOKS!  I haven't done that since I was a teenager at the beach) and took little naps without worrying about who was in the pool and whether they had their floaties on.  Kelly and I had real conversations and talked more in those five days than we have in the last month...completely uninterrupted by telephone or crying (kids, not me).

Mom, thanks for staying with our kids.  They had almost as much fun as we did and we felt safe knowing that it was you watching them.