Vacation Tales
Jan. 1st, 2006 03:51 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
miss_ytHappy new year! I got back from Florida last night, but I was too busy/tired to write about it until now, except for that one little entry before.
Overall, it was a good trip. Mom and Granny bugged me about my weight, but it didn't bother me as much as usual and Granny didn't make a big fuss over my acne the way Mom seemed to think she would. In spite of a small fracture in her spine, Granny's still keeping busy. I suppose she feels she has to because she's the only person in her immediate family in Florida who is completely in her right mind. As I said before, both my great aunt and my mother's sister have some problems and my maternal grandfather is a bit senile, although he's better now than when we last saw him. I think it's because he's been exercising in the gym at the retirement community they moved to.[1] I actually went to the gym myself to exercise and lift weights to make up for eating so much on vacation, though I don't think I compensated entirely. I haven't weighed myself since I got back so I don't know for sure.
Granny gave each of us lots of Hanukah money, which Benjamin almost immediately spent on a PSP. She also gave me a nice pair of emerald earrings. Dad gave me a USB drive shaped like a piece of sushi. (it's the shrimp, second from the right on the bottom row). Later he also bought me a crochet hook, some yarn and some knitting needles. We got them at Michael's so the yarn isn't the best quality, but it's quite nice for 100% acryllic yarn and I'm making a nice scarf out of it. I used the crochet hook to finish Benjamin's Harry Potter scarf. Unfortunately I don't have any pictures because I forgot to bring my digital camera and Dad's camera is the regular film kind.
One of the highlights of our trip was an outing to Busch Gardens. Mom didn't come with us - it was just Dad, Daniel, Benjamin and I.[2] I didn't go on a lot of rides (although I enjoyed the bumper cars), but I did go into the aviary with Dad. There's an interactive part of the aviary where visitors can go in and feed these birds called lorries with cups of nectar.[3] Although you are supposed to pay 3 dollars for the nectar, Dad and I found that a lot of people had left mostly- or half-full cups of the stuff on top of one of the trash cans, so I picked one up and went looking for birds to feed. I found one in a tree next to a rock, so I stood on the rock to reach it. Since I was so high up, and I had food, the bird decided to perch on my hand! Another one joined it and they both sat on my finger, alternately bobbing their beaks into the cup of nectar I was holding. Dad got some nice pictures but, again, it was a film camera so I can't post them. :P
Our family also did two things that are sort of traditional for us when we visit Florida. One of them was a bit different from usual. You see, back when my grandparents lived in Punta Gorda, they lived not far away from this little shopping village called Fisherman's Warf. There was a seafood restaurant there that we called "Fried Food World," although it was really named Fisherman's Market or something like that. Since Granny and Grampy live further away now and there's no point in driving for an hour just to go there, we had to find a new seafood restaurant. We found another one not far from them that also had good fried seafood (and alligator). Mom wouldn't let me have any fried food so I got a plate of blue crabs instead. Crabs are good diet food because 1) they're full of protein, 2) you have to work to get the meat, and 3) if you're not an expert at cracking crabs, you have no choice but to eat slowly. I actually finished my dinner a while after everyone else did, which sort of annoyed them. Next time I think I'll just get snow crab legs or something. The other tradition we have is playing miniature golf. Most of the time Mom doesn't go with us - it's just me, Dad, and the boys. Most of the time I also get last or next-to-last place, but this year, for the first time, I won the game! Of course I crowed and gloated for quite a while, which really got on my brothers' nerves.
The trip ended on something of a sour note, because I lost my pocketknife. I thought I'd left it at home, and security didn't pick it up in Philadelphia, but it turned out that I'd just put it in a very deep pocket of my purse. They found it at the checkpoint when I was heading back from Tampa, and had to search my purse for 10 minutes to find it. There was no time for me to go back and mail it home, so they disposed of it, and it's now gone for good. I suppose it could have been worse - they might have gotten really paranoid and detained me or put me through extra searches or something. On the bright side, this means I have an excuse to get a better pocketknife - the one I had before was just miniature.
My family flew back to Maryland and I came back to Philly. I had something of a headache when I got home so I took a rest, but set my alarm so that I would be awake for the new year. It was the first time I hadn't been with my family for New Year's Eve, which was a little sad. I wanted to be around people, and my TV doesn't have cable or even an antenna, so I went to the New Wave Cafe, which is only a couple of blocks from me and has the kind of beer I like. I ended up talking for about an hour and a half with a guy named Ravi, who did not study anthropology but was sort of interested in the subject nonetheless. For some reason I can't fathom he thought I was interesting, and was nice enough to buy me a drink (we didn't exchange numbers or anything though). So New Year's Eve turned out better than I thought it would.
Now I'm enjoying a quiet Sunday at home. I haven't finished unpacking yet (bad me!), but I did bring Roo home from Ye Jin's. She said that Roo was not well-behaved. Roo was sort of hostile to Ye Jin's cat for the first few days and kept jumping up on counters. I think Ye Jin got very annoyed with her, although she didn't say so, and suggested that I train her by spraying her with water when she jumps up on things. I have a spray bottle so I've been doing that and it seems to work. Although she is of course a wicked kitty, I'm glad to have Roo back home, and I think she's glad to be here too.
Oh, and by the way, Suzanne said that her family liked the cookies I baked, and her mother has sent me a present, but I won't get it (or know what it is) until she gets back home in a few days.
Now, instead of unpacking, I am going to procrastinate some more by playing Starcraft.
[1] My mother's parents used to live in Punta Gorda near the Gulf Coast. Now they live in a small condominium in a retirement community called The Glendridge in Sarasota, which is an hour away and more inland.
[2] Dad says that next time the three of us can go on our own. He is not fond of roller coasters.
[3] Lorries are shaped like big robins and have the coloration of parrots. The "nectar" was probably just sugar-water.
Overall, it was a good trip. Mom and Granny bugged me about my weight, but it didn't bother me as much as usual and Granny didn't make a big fuss over my acne the way Mom seemed to think she would. In spite of a small fracture in her spine, Granny's still keeping busy. I suppose she feels she has to because she's the only person in her immediate family in Florida who is completely in her right mind. As I said before, both my great aunt and my mother's sister have some problems and my maternal grandfather is a bit senile, although he's better now than when we last saw him. I think it's because he's been exercising in the gym at the retirement community they moved to.[1] I actually went to the gym myself to exercise and lift weights to make up for eating so much on vacation, though I don't think I compensated entirely. I haven't weighed myself since I got back so I don't know for sure.
Granny gave each of us lots of Hanukah money, which Benjamin almost immediately spent on a PSP. She also gave me a nice pair of emerald earrings. Dad gave me a USB drive shaped like a piece of sushi. (it's the shrimp, second from the right on the bottom row). Later he also bought me a crochet hook, some yarn and some knitting needles. We got them at Michael's so the yarn isn't the best quality, but it's quite nice for 100% acryllic yarn and I'm making a nice scarf out of it. I used the crochet hook to finish Benjamin's Harry Potter scarf. Unfortunately I don't have any pictures because I forgot to bring my digital camera and Dad's camera is the regular film kind.
One of the highlights of our trip was an outing to Busch Gardens. Mom didn't come with us - it was just Dad, Daniel, Benjamin and I.[2] I didn't go on a lot of rides (although I enjoyed the bumper cars), but I did go into the aviary with Dad. There's an interactive part of the aviary where visitors can go in and feed these birds called lorries with cups of nectar.[3] Although you are supposed to pay 3 dollars for the nectar, Dad and I found that a lot of people had left mostly- or half-full cups of the stuff on top of one of the trash cans, so I picked one up and went looking for birds to feed. I found one in a tree next to a rock, so I stood on the rock to reach it. Since I was so high up, and I had food, the bird decided to perch on my hand! Another one joined it and they both sat on my finger, alternately bobbing their beaks into the cup of nectar I was holding. Dad got some nice pictures but, again, it was a film camera so I can't post them. :P
Our family also did two things that are sort of traditional for us when we visit Florida. One of them was a bit different from usual. You see, back when my grandparents lived in Punta Gorda, they lived not far away from this little shopping village called Fisherman's Warf. There was a seafood restaurant there that we called "Fried Food World," although it was really named Fisherman's Market or something like that. Since Granny and Grampy live further away now and there's no point in driving for an hour just to go there, we had to find a new seafood restaurant. We found another one not far from them that also had good fried seafood (and alligator). Mom wouldn't let me have any fried food so I got a plate of blue crabs instead. Crabs are good diet food because 1) they're full of protein, 2) you have to work to get the meat, and 3) if you're not an expert at cracking crabs, you have no choice but to eat slowly. I actually finished my dinner a while after everyone else did, which sort of annoyed them. Next time I think I'll just get snow crab legs or something. The other tradition we have is playing miniature golf. Most of the time Mom doesn't go with us - it's just me, Dad, and the boys. Most of the time I also get last or next-to-last place, but this year, for the first time, I won the game! Of course I crowed and gloated for quite a while, which really got on my brothers' nerves.
The trip ended on something of a sour note, because I lost my pocketknife. I thought I'd left it at home, and security didn't pick it up in Philadelphia, but it turned out that I'd just put it in a very deep pocket of my purse. They found it at the checkpoint when I was heading back from Tampa, and had to search my purse for 10 minutes to find it. There was no time for me to go back and mail it home, so they disposed of it, and it's now gone for good. I suppose it could have been worse - they might have gotten really paranoid and detained me or put me through extra searches or something. On the bright side, this means I have an excuse to get a better pocketknife - the one I had before was just miniature.
My family flew back to Maryland and I came back to Philly. I had something of a headache when I got home so I took a rest, but set my alarm so that I would be awake for the new year. It was the first time I hadn't been with my family for New Year's Eve, which was a little sad. I wanted to be around people, and my TV doesn't have cable or even an antenna, so I went to the New Wave Cafe, which is only a couple of blocks from me and has the kind of beer I like. I ended up talking for about an hour and a half with a guy named Ravi, who did not study anthropology but was sort of interested in the subject nonetheless. For some reason I can't fathom he thought I was interesting, and was nice enough to buy me a drink (we didn't exchange numbers or anything though). So New Year's Eve turned out better than I thought it would.
Now I'm enjoying a quiet Sunday at home. I haven't finished unpacking yet (bad me!), but I did bring Roo home from Ye Jin's. She said that Roo was not well-behaved. Roo was sort of hostile to Ye Jin's cat for the first few days and kept jumping up on counters. I think Ye Jin got very annoyed with her, although she didn't say so, and suggested that I train her by spraying her with water when she jumps up on things. I have a spray bottle so I've been doing that and it seems to work. Although she is of course a wicked kitty, I'm glad to have Roo back home, and I think she's glad to be here too.
Oh, and by the way, Suzanne said that her family liked the cookies I baked, and her mother has sent me a present, but I won't get it (or know what it is) until she gets back home in a few days.
Now, instead of unpacking, I am going to procrastinate some more by playing Starcraft.
[1] My mother's parents used to live in Punta Gorda near the Gulf Coast. Now they live in a small condominium in a retirement community called The Glendridge in Sarasota, which is an hour away and more inland.
[2] Dad says that next time the three of us can go on our own. He is not fond of roller coasters.
[3] Lorries are shaped like big robins and have the coloration of parrots. The "nectar" was probably just sugar-water.
