Gettin' It Good

Nooo...not that kind of Gettin' It Good. You perverts!

My daughter has it good. Damn good. Her summer:

1 week of camp with her two best friends -- crafts, sports, bowling, mini-golf, pool, etc.
1 week of golf camp (1/2 day) then swim /ice skating camp (2nd half of day)
2 weeks of vactaion in Mytle Beach with her family (twas lovely)
1 week of vacation on a lake in Maine with her Aunt
4 weeks of swim camp, with morning sports activities thrown in
1 week of adventure camp w/ swimming, rock climbing, zip lines, etc.

Throw in assorted weekend excursions to the beach, shopping, cookouts, mini golf, family parties and friend's birthday parties (she goes to like 3 per month).

Yeah. She got it good. Its cool to be 8!

MBSC

Looks like my family will be going to Myrtle Beach, South Carolina again this year for vacation. Reasons being:

1. We love the beach;
2. Lots of golf courses (for me, anyway);
3. Tons of restaurants (including my family's new favorite, Golden Coral);
4. Warm water, great surf;
5. Everything is so reasonably priced (golf, restaurants, etc);
6. My co-worker generously offered use of her condo for as long as we like for about 1/4 what it would cost us! 10 days for $350 sound good to anyone? Does to me!

MB or bust!

Vacation Return

Family and I had a nice vacation at the beach. Hotel was so-so, but the location rocked! Weather was cooperative, surf was 85 and the waves where great. We ate out a lot and a ton at a time. I golfed a few times and it was terrific. We hit tons of traffic down and back but my little 2 month old was unbelievably great the entire trip! He's really amazing in his mellowness and it was nice to spend a good solid week with him.

What I Did This Summer

Kayaked at Cape Cod
Visited beautiful Niagara Falls
Went on an overnight canoe trip in Maine
Saw the Creed concertAnd, of course, played some golf

Vacation Plans

After years of some elaborate (read: expensive) vacations, my family and I are taking a rather simple one this year. Since the Mrs. has always wanted to see Niagara Falls, we're going to drive out there and check it out (I've been) and then we're going to hit up Hershey Amusement Park on the way back, although its slightly off-route. We have to be back by Thursday evening to catch the Creed concert since I bought tickets for Mrs. N. for mother's day (stupidly not thinking it was our vacation).

Then, I think we'll head out to Cape Cod and visit my brother and his family for three days or so before driving north so my mom can take the Little One for the next week.

That's all. Nothing crazy or super-special but we'll have fun with it no doubt!

Double Secret Vacation

I'm off on my ultra secret anniversary trip with the wife this weekend. I'm sure I'll post details when I return, but as of now, it needs to stay classified.

Can I trust you?

Back

I'm back!

Whew!!

Sort of odd not to be waiting in any lines today.

No line for breakfast, then to pay for breakfast, then for the bus to the park, then the bag inspection area, then the ticket booth, then the attraction (x5), then lunch, then a ride (x8), then a snack (x3), then to exit the park, then the bus again, then dinner and then to pay for dinner.

No wonder our feet ached.

All-in-all though, a BLAST!

Who's Calling?

Ring, ring.

Hello?

Yes, this is he.

Oh, hi!

Yeah, pretty much all set.

Right.

Right.

I won't.

Stop worrying I won't.

Listen, I won't forget, ok? How could I?

Of course. She's way too excited.

Ok.

Yep. You too. See ya tomorrow.

Ok. Bye Mickey.

Click.

Itinerary

One week from tomorrow we're off. Jam packed excitement of 7 parks in 8 days and we're really starting to get jazzed up for it. First will be a whale of a time at Sea World.

Then we will squeeze in a trip to the home of the Magic Kingdom wherein we will be having breakfast with Cinderella herself.

A jaunt over to the many worlds of Epcot shall be in order as well.

Of course we'll be the stars of Disney's Hollywood Studios.


Naturally, we'll explore Animal Kingdom.



Lastly, we'll get wet and wild at Typhoon Lagoon and Blizzard Beach.





Ok, veteran's -- am I missing anything? Any advice for me?

Vacation Memory

So we leave for Disney next Saturday morning and we're getting psyched up.

My wife, child and self are going to be meeting my brother, his wife and their two kids there and my sister in law informed me she's already packing. I can't do that. It only brings on a bad childhood memory.

I grew up lower middle class I would say. While we had a warm home and food on the table I didn't always get the brand of sneakers I wanted and my parents didn't really have the money for athletic camps or "extras" that it seemed my friends had.

One thing my parents did spend money on, however, was vacations. We always went for two weeks and although things were budgeted, we rented nice houses on the shore, went to Disney or California or the like. My mom loved and still loves to travel so I've been to most parts of the country as well as across Canada and down into Mexico.

In her excitement for the trips, one thing was to pack early. Early as in two weeks in advance which left us with limited clothing to wear, let alone clothes we'd be caught dead in. When I was a lad of say 14 my mom called me at my buddy's house and asked me to come home because she wanted to wash and pack the tee shirt I was wearing. This was a Tuesday before a Saturday departure and I was at least 3/4 of a mile away and in a whiffle ball pennant race.

Well, I found this embarrassing in front of my friends and more or less unexplainable to them. Plus I could only imagine the shirt she selected as not "vacation worthy". I argued my point but went home where I argued my point more. I argued it to the point that I was grounded for the next two days. Its still unclear why she couldn't wait another two hours or so when I would be home for dinner.

But she won. She always won.

Since I was grounded, though, at least nobody saw me in my "Here Comes A (Bad Example) of a Genius" shirt that didn't make the vacation cut.

Where Next?

Now that I'm back from Vegas, I promptly booked my families' trip to Disney World. Not Land. The Florida one. Third week in May. Looking forward to it. We're going with my brother's family and they've been twice in the past 5 years or so, so we'll be in good hands but if you've been recently feel free to lend me your insight on the dos/don'ts.

Light Bloggin'

I haven't been blogging as much lately or commenting for a myriad of reasons. Mostly, last week daycare was closed, so I took a semi-working vacation to watch the Little One. Semi-working in that I worked 6 hours on Monday while my mother-in-law watched her, taking her in on Tuesday and Thursday for a few hours and coming in after hours on Thursday. All-in-all it mostly felt like a week off from work and I got to spend quality time with my Little One in daddy/daughter mode as Mrs. B. worked a full week (she was recently promoted so time off was out of the question.).

Monday when I finally picked her up we spent some additional time with Grandma as I love my in-laws company and the Little One wasn't ready to leave. Then we went out for hot dogs at a cool place by the river. I swear that little kid would eat hot dogs every single day if she could.
Perhaps there's some competitive eating in her future. Did you notice how many records I posted below are held by a woman? Nothing like a chick that can really throw down the chow.

Tuesday we came into the office for a bit and then we went to Lake Compounce Amusement Park. I haven't been there since I was a kid and its grown tremendously. Now advertised as a family amusement park it lives up to it well. Not all that expensive and kids of 40", her height, can go on most but the hairiest of rides as long as they're with a parent. Plus, free soda everywhere! She loved it and we got totally soaked at the end after the log flume ride and rapid river rides. We both vowed to take Mrs. B. there real soon. Its cool to have a kid that has no fears of rides or exciting things like that because both Mrs. B and I love that stuff. I could do without too much spinning though. Urp!!!

Wednesday, the fourth, after I golfed in the morning at a beautiful new course in state, we all went to a party at some friend's newly purchased house. It has a pool, a trampoline, volleyball. firepits, outdoor card table, etc. Pretty cool but again it was chilly out so we didn't swim and soon it was raining so we mostly hung out inside. Good time in any event.

Thursday, I again came into the office with her for a bit. However, some of the things I needed to get done were offset by a scheduling change so I had more time and we decided to head for the beach. It was not the warmest of days but the sun was out. After a Wal*Mart trip for suits, sunscreen, a towel and a toy truck we were off. My unpreparedness was because we originally had no plans for the beach and I didn't want to go home because that would been an hour out of our way. Her bathing suits are getting too small anyway and the new Nemo one is a hit!

Creepy thing at the beach, however. It was nearly deserted as it was cool and the sun wasn't staying out. However, a 60-ish guy came down the path with a cooler and chair and sat not too far away from us for about 10 minutes. Then he grabbed his stuff and went down the beach 500 yards or so. I thought maybe he didn't want a kid near him. Possibly. But! He set the cooler up on one side and the chair, now covered in a towel, on the other and he lay down between them. Best case scenario he was shielding himself from the wind which wasn't that heavy or maybe nude sunbathing? Worse case......ugh! I don't want to think about it. A couple young ladies did stop and were talking to him at one point. Looked weird. He hitched his pants a lot when I finally got up too. Creepy.

Anyway, we had fun and afterwards stopped for some seafood for dinner. I'm not sure why seafood is more predominant at the Connecticut coast than inland but I'm pretty sure none of the menu items are harvested locally. The first few bites were good, but it was all fried and that stuff makes me feel blech very shortly. Little One had an ice cream sandwich for dinner.

Either I'm a cool dad (her words) or a crappy one (ice cream for dinner?) but I figure its her vacation too so I allowed it. She ate a bit of fried calamari too. "Hey, I like this!"

After I worked a bit on Thursday night I came home to find Mrs. B's car wouldn't start. Since it wasn't the battery I told her I would take care of getting it towed in for service on Friday and she could take my car to work. It didn't start when I tried it first thing Friday either. However, Triple A shows up for the tow and, of course, it started up like there was never a problem. I'm like, "what the fuck?" Unbelievable. Anyway, he left and I drove it down to be checked anyway and the Little One and I walked the mile home. They couldn't find anything wrong, of course, but cleaned the battery terminal. Somehow, I just KNOW that isn't it.

Anyway, I spent the rest of the day installing a new outside door to my backyard as the Little One "helped". Then when storms moved in we went inside for kid movies which meant I read. That night was poker night and I was done in an hour. Crap! Lost big time on Ace/King. Oh well.

Saturday, we all went to one of those "catch-all" birthday parties for like 5 of Mrs. B's relatives that have summer birthdays. It was nice if not terribly eventful.

I played 27 with some buddies on Sunday.

Relatively uneventful vacation but nice to just kind of wing it without formal plans.

We're planning a bash of our own this Saturday since we usually have a summer party. Hopefully, I'll get some blogging material from that.