Vacation. Is. Awesome.

This is pretty belated, because it is sort of hard to summarize a 13-day vacation. But we had a great time, I visited three new states, had the best Lobster Bisque you can imagine, and let lose my inner child on some fun roller coasters. Anyway, some highlights:

We drove down to Orlando the long way, stopping the first night in North Carolina just outside of Myrtle Beach. The thing about Myrtle Beach, for you gentle readers who have never been there, is the mini golf. As we approach we pass this huge mini golf place that is decked out as a giant erupting volcano, complete with red food coloring in the water, er, magma-fall. We laughed and kept driving, but two blocks away was another mini golf place, this time with pirates. Then another one with old airplanes. Then another one with dinosaurs. Then a Hawaiian one. Then a Tahitian one. We counted ten huge mini golf places, all within maybe five miles of each other, and this was just on one road through town. Do that many beach-tourists really play mini golf? I'll admit though, by the end I was thinking maybe I'd like to play a round for the kitsch value.

We stopped in some back-woods Cider stand to get Peach Cider, simply because it was delicious.

We spent five days in Orlando at the Disney parks. My poor brother, who is spending the semester working at the park, had the lucky task of chaperoning us around so we could get free parking. I can only guess how many times he has been through the parks, but he never complained and came with us anytime he wasn't working, as did his lovely girlfriend Liz. She had her own family visiting, so we didn't get to see enough of her, but we still had fun dragging her through Epcot looking for dinner. We stopped at the fancy Mexican restaurant, this was a tuesday night, and were told "We are booked until Friday". At a theme park? We originally thought five days would be too long, especially after we sped through the Magic Kingdom AND Hollywood Studios in the first day alone (thanks mostly to Liz, who TOTALLY hooked us up). But as we wore down from all the excitement and junk food we started going to bed earlier and earlier and getting up later and later. There is something to be said, after all, about relaxing a little while you are on vacation.

We especially enjoyed the "Beauty And The Beast" show, mostly because during the big battle at the castle one of the townsfolk took a club to Chip the Cup and was seriously beating on him for at least a full minute while his buddy went after Mrs. Potts. Hope none of the kiddies in the audience were paying attention to the back of the stage, but we found it hilarious.

None of the rides that are also at Disneyland were as good. Too many changes that remove all my childhood memories, which are a big part of why I love Disneyland so much. I mean, Space Mountain without the music? My favorite ride was the Aerosmith ride at Hollywood Studios. 0 to 60 in 3.2 seconds, does life get better than that? Also awesome was the new mission to Mars ride, which I think is the ride people have died on. Good to know I don't have a defective heart, cause I rode it twice.

One entertainment was watching people flirt with a usually clueless Kyle. We were in the single rider line at the Aerosmith ride and this cute girl comes up behind us, and is all "Ohmygosh I am so scared to ride this ride, does it loop upside down, I am totally going to scream, I should totally ride it with you so I'm safe!" And Kyle is all deadpan business: "Uh, this is the single rider line, so you can't ride with me." Then we are at a restaurant, and after she takes our order our waitress comes over and mischievously asks Kyle "Are you gay?" And he is like, "Uh, no." and the waitress is all "oh, cause my friend wanted to know" and she points to another waiter who is trying really hard to pretend he can't see us in his peripheral vision. Anyway, I don't think Liz has anything to worry about, but it was pretty funny for me.

We came out of this bizarre ride where Ellen DeGeneres takes you through a dinosaur diorama (don't ask), and this little girl looks up and screams "Look! Gee-Zoo!" Up in the air a skywriter had just written out "Jesu" - I know she was just eight, but can't you kind of guess what it is going to say? Gee-Zoo! I figured it was going to say something cute like "Jesus Loves You" or something, but in the end it said "Jesus Forgives You". A bit heavy handed I guess, but ok. Thanks for the reminder anonymous plane guy!

We stopped in Wal-Mart for some snacks, and ahead of us in line is this blonde guy, clean cut but, you know, straight-looking. When we get to the counter, he puts down his stuff - chips, dip, Pepsi, and a DVD of...Enchanted. Only in Orlando. (Or Anaheim)

On the way home we spent a night in Savannah, a city you hear a lot about but neither of us had ever been. After about a half hour of walking around we decided to stop, get some dinner, and save the rest for another time. What a beautiful city, we will definitely go back for a long weekend sometime. In our hotel was a bar called "Doubles". But the sign was in cursive so it looked like it said "Doables". Indeed.

David, who is sitting across from me filling out a job application to work at the zoo (seriously), just lifted his head and asked "Did you talk about the Spanish Moss? I love moss." So yeah, we saw spanish moss. And we loved it. He was pretty bummed though, that despite our best efforts we did not see a wild alligator. We did see a whole bunch throughout the parks, but most of them were in cartoon or animatronic form, which did not satisfy him. You wouldn't know it, but David can be quite particular. :) The animal reserve we stopped at did have an oyster reef and snapping shrimp though, so it wasn't a total loss.

Anyway, we had a great time. I'm glad not only that we finally got to go, so I can scratch if off my list of things I need to do before I die, but I'm especially glad that we were able to hang out with my brother. For a kid who grew up as spoiled as he was, well, he has turned out to be actually fun to hang out with, and with a good head on his shoulders to boot. I thought my mom was crazy for letting him go like three years eating nothing but chicken, bananas and twinkies, but apparently it is the diet of champions. I'm predicting great things from him, especially considering his good taste in finding a great girl like Liz. Now if I can just convince him to name his second daughter Rose...