Sea-ing the World (April 4, 2013)


We found a possible career option for the kids
who go to GRCS's Circus Camp. Rachel??
Today we went to SeaWorld, which doesn’t require much description. If you haven’t been to one, you probably still know enough about it already. It’s part thrill ride, part aquarium, with a nice big touch of schmaltz, guaranteeing good sales of cute stuffed sea creatures. This one also has a waterpark with some cool slides as part of the deal, but unfortunately it is only open on weekends at this time. I did not know that until I saw the sign at the parking lot entrance. The thing that saved me from my children’s wrath was that Six Flags is only open on weekends right now, so we could not have gone there instead. This knowledge made the limited ride choices at SeaWorld more acceptable, and the great part was there were no lines. The only people there on a school day are people with small children, who don’t ride big rides, and people from crazy-cold places like Michigan where spring break doesn’t occur until it’s summer in the south.
Natalie felt sorry for the caged-in alligators, but the turtles
seem to make the most of the situation.
The weather was much better than yesterday’s cool rain, and by the afternoon shorts and t-shirts were enough. We rode all the rides, saw all the shows, and had a good time.

But there was a blip. At lunchtime, we went out to the car to make sandwiches. This saved us approximately $5,000. Well, okay, I’m exaggerating a bit. While eating, I noticed that I’d left the package of single-serving bags of chips in our hotel closet on the top shelf. That would be the hotel that we checked out of this morning, because we are staying near the highway tonight (it’s cheaper than downtown, and it’s easier to get out of in the morning). I don’t care about the chips, but I had a vague memory of putting something else up there too.

I called up the downtown hotel, and they looked into the housekeeping notes. They had no record of chips (not sure they bother with food), but they did find a retainer. That would be Andrew’s. Argh. That’s not what I might have put on the shelf, but I am glad they found it! I left 2 girls in the pool at the next hotel and one young man happily ensconced on the couch watching more “scientific” television, while I drove an hour to and from the hotel to recover his retainer. He did say thank you, but let’s just say I was not genuinely appreciative of that. Now, if I had left something that valuable on the top shelf of the closet, no one should be crabby about that, right? I would just be glad that we got it back. It would appear that mothers are allowed to make mistakes and expect understanding, but their children are not. Does anyone have a problem with that? Well?

Tomorrow morning we begin the long ride home. We’ll pick up Jodi and her kids in Mansfield, TX, and then we hope to drive straight through to Grand Rapids. We’ll have to pass up Austin for the second time this week, wishing we could stop off and visit the Dittas there. Also I really want to see the Cathedral of Junk, a structure made of junk created by one resident who can only be trying to keep up the motto “Keep Austin Weird.” I love Austin, but I have a tendency to overschedule vacations, so I did my best to not overdo it on this trip. You might disagree, but so far I’ve managed to keep that goal!

We didn’t even stop there for a nostalgic trip up Mt. Bonnell, a cool place to look over the city and Lake Austin. One summer when Brian and I were dating, we took a one-day tour of Austin and San Antonio (he should’ve recognized my trip overscheduling tendencies way back then, seriously). Our romantic evening stop to overlook the lights of Austin took a dark turn. We found a secluded area with a stone bench, very romantic for a moment, until we discovered a problem. The bench was infested with fire ants, and they were making a meal of us. Gave a whole new meaning to the heat of passion. Three minutes after our arrival, we were shaking and slapping ants off our arms and legs. If you ever want to make a romantic stop at on Mt. Bonnell, I might suggest long sleeves, long pants and possibly gloves and a ski mask. Or possibly just be more careful about where you sit, I don’t know.

Early to bed so I can be ready to drive.

Popular posts from this blog

Banff and Beyond (August 4 and 5)

Image
Tuesday morning came around and there were a few unspoken understandings in the air. First off, very few of us were interested in returning to our tents as the predictions for our upcoming stay at Glacier National Park showed nights in the 30s again. Also, there was still a wildfire at Glacier, and it was affecting the area just west of St Mary Campground, where we had reservations. The road going across the park was closed from St Mary to the top of the mountain pass, so our movement would be quite restricted. I ended up scouring VRBO, Homeaway and Airbnb for a place to rent somewhere near Glacier. There was one house available in our price range in Whitefish, Montana, about 30 minutes from the West Glacier entrance. We decided to rent it. I called the phone number, the woman who answered was very gracious, and our Wednesday-Saturday itinerary were the only open dates she had. Second, no one wanted to pack sandwiches today. Plus Katy had a bunch of canned goods and mac & che...
Read more

Little Earthquakes Everywhere

Image
This morning, just before 5 am, a 5.0 earthquake somewhere northeast of us made a Tokyo’s ground tremble. I happened to wake up to the bed shaking a bit; this is the fourth time I’ve felt one in my life. Three of those four times I’ve wondered what Brian could possibly be doing in his sleep—a constant leg twitch? a terrifying nightmare?— to cause our bed to shimmy this way. One of those times was three days ago in the middle of the night in the same hotel room, but it didn’t occur to me then what it was. This morning I heard the wall shift slightly as it was happening and it became clear. Japan has small earthquakes almost every day, so this should be no surprise, but of course my nighttime self is not the most reasonable version of me, so I lay in bed another half hour wondering what might come next. I am the family seismograph—everyone else slept through both tremors this week.  This echoes my function in our family in real life. When one of our children is going thr...
Read more

[British] Open Minded

Image
About a year ago, a friend asked us if we’d be interested in going to Scotland for the British Open if he won the chance to buy 4 tickets in the ticket lottery. At the end of October he found out he’d won. For a few hours I was celebrating my opportunity to see top-notch tennis players, until my ignorance became apparent to the rest of the foursome. Turns out it’s a golf tournament; I offer that tidbit for anyone else out there like me. After 9 months of anticipation and almost 2 weeks of touring Scotland, the big day was here. Our fellow traveler not only won the chance to buy tickets, he won the chance to buy them for the final day. Again, for those like me, that means they have already played a round of golf for each of the first 3 days, and those that made the cut play a last round on the final day. The excitement of it was heightened because it was the 150 th anniversary of the British Open, and it was being played—as it is every 5 years now—at the birthplace of golf, St Andr...
Read more