Friday, April 05, 2013

Back in the Swing of Things

Well, sort of.

My family and I went on vacation two weeks ago, to visit my husband's family in Florida over Spring Break. It was a wonderful trip (despite the flight down being delayed and very turbulent and the return flight spending half an hour in a holding pattern over Virginia.) The weather was beautiful, if a little cold in the beginning. And by cold, I mean in the sixties kind of cold. The kind of cold that has Floridians running for heavy winter coats while those of us from the North wear short-sleeved tee shirts and say, "Ahhh... it's so warm here!"

We went to Naples, which is on the west coast, along the Gulf. My husband and I spent our honeymoon there, and this was the first time in almost sixteen years we were able to go back (the Girl has spent every Spring Break with her grandparents for a few years now, but this was the first year we thought the Boy could handle such a trip.) I'd forgotten just how beautiful Naples is - and after the long, seemingly endless winter we were having up here in NJ, it was a vacation in itself just to see the brilliant colors of all the blooming flowers and trees. Everything was just so pretty and so alive - a far cry from the yet-to-bloom trees and bushes up home.


The time leading up to the trip was hectic enough, since there were four of us but everything went smoothly. As I said, the flight down was pretty rough - with the drop-the-pit-of-your-stomach kind of turbulence (apparently there was some pretty severe weather through Georgia/Northern Florida and nowhere to go but through it. It reminded me very much of a roller coaster ride.) And considering this was the Boy's first flight, he handled it beautifully. He wasn't so crazy about the landing, but everything else was okay as far as he was concerned.

All in all, it was a relaxing vacation, with time spent on the beach, at the pool, at the Naples Zoo (I got licked by a giraffe while feeding it. Gross, but in a funny way.) We did some shopping, had tea at a wonderful little tea shop, and took the kids to the Children's Museum. We watched some gorgeous sunsets. Drank some terrific wine. And slept like babies every night. It was exactly what a vacation should be.


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