Baby, It's Cold Outside - I

Big Poppy and I like to go on vacation. I cannot think of very many people who do not like vacation but I'm sure there are some out there. Living in the Frozen Tundra, when winter comes or after it has been dragging on a little too long we like to head to Cabo for a few days of S&R (sun and relaxing). While I am a big believer in trying new things, going to different places and having new experiences we fell in love with Cabo and decided if we could only vacation one place a year Cabo really isn't that bad of a place to be.

In reality, we normally have a couple mini-vacations (think long weekends) and a one week long vacation. I cannot wait to introduce Little Guy to Cabo but it just did not work out to fly off to Mexico this year. Yes, I am sad about this but poor us, instead of vacationing in Cabo for a week we decided to visit the Orlando, Florida area. We are fortunate and if at any time I sound a little whining about our vacation, I am not. What I may be is a little upset with a few things that have happened. However, rest assured, there are more smiles and laughs than anything else. I know we are blessed on so many levels... it all comes down to Little Guy.

Big Poppy, Little Guy and I were picked up by GrandB and GrandC on December 4 to head to the airport. The night before it had snowed. Alot. After Little Guy went to bed Big Poppy shoveled the driveway while I snoozed on the couch (Hey, at least I am honest about what I was doing and, in my defense, I had traveled for work Thursday morning and returned home on Friday. Traveling can be very tiring.). The snow was still falling as Big Poppy shoveled although it had slowed down quite a bit. By morning there was a fine layer of snow on the driveway but we had other items to attend to. Mainly getting to the airport.

We traveled to the main hub without incident and made it through security after a short wait or at least a short wait by today's security standards. There is this wonderful little thing with having a young child, sometimes the airport personnel pull you out of line and have you go through a separate line because they understand it takes longer to do things with a stroller, toddler and a carry on bag for his entertainment pleasure. Lucky us, we had one of those kind airport personnel pulled us aside. For anyone screaming unfair treatment, I have a few stories where we were not so lucky. This just helped even out some of the not-so-nice treatment's I have received (Lincoln, NE - you know who you are and that I can point a finger at one person in particular on more than one occasion -- yes, that does mean I have flown to Lincoln, NE more than once in my life -- but I digress).

The airport music is filled with holiday cheer and one of the songs I heard has been stuck in my head ever since - Baby, It's Cold Outside. The Frozen Tundra was just that as we left - Frozen. As a text message I received from a friend said:

It's freezing cold. FREEZING. COLD.

And so, as I boarded the plane I am thinking a little smugly to myself "in a few short hours I will be in Florida, the sunshine state." As I was seated on the plane, talking to Big Poppy and entertaining Little Guy I was under the illusion that while Orlando has off season and winter months that low 70's would feel like a little piece of heaven (more to come on this false illusion). After all, Baby, It's Cold Outside here in the Frozen Tundra not the sunshine state which will give us the warmth and sun we desire.

The ice was so thick at the airport we were delayed, after everyone had boarded, 15 minutes in order for a larger truck to make it's way over to our plane to help push us back from the gate. Then it was time to de-ice the plane which was another 45 minutes, again after everyone had boarded the plane. Then we were off! (QUESTION: Does anyone else find it humorous and frustrating that even though our flight took off just about exactly one hour after the scheduled departure time the flight was considered an on-time departure because the airplane door was pushed away from the gate on-time? I wonder if I could pass that kind of customer service onto my clients and set my own prices.)

We landed safely, always a good thing, collected our bags and retrieved our car rental with ease. Finding our hotel was also relatively painless and our vacation had started.

Sunday (December 5) brought a new day. Big Poppy made us breakfast (tasty!) and Big T and AuntJ drove over for the day. After a bite to eat for lunch we headed over to Sea World. Fantastic! Little Guy was so excited to see everything....stay tuned...I have to get dressed to start our next day. The boys are waiting on me. :)