My OTHER Adventure

I was going through the photos of our trip to Cocoa Beach and I realized two things: 1) I didn't take very many pictures; and 2) most of the pictures are of scenery and not of us! Consequently, I don't really have many pictures of our trip to share with you.

Here are a couple taken at Disney.

I won't give you the blow-by-blow. (46 hours of driving...boring.) I will just give you some of the highlights and some of my observations:

Pennsylvania is my least favourite state. In fairness, I've only ever seen it in winter, but what I've seen has been kind of dismal looking. I imagine it's nicer in the spring.

Maryland, in contrast, seems to be "tidier" somehow. It also seems to be more prosperous maybe?

Taco Bell in the U.S. uses REAL MEAT in their tacos. That was novel.

I don't know what it is about North Carolina, but that state smells soooo good! I'm positive it's some kind of foliage, but I'm not sure what.

Some new vocab I learned: the phrase "fixing to" means "planning on" or "preparing to" as in "Were you fixin' to eat that taco with the real meat in it?"

What do you people feed your chickens??? I could not get over the size of the chicken parts! They are double in size to what we see here.

Richmond, VA is very pretty at night! The downtown buildings are outlined in white lights so the city silouette is visible from a distance. Very pretty.

I also enjoyed all the twinkly lights at Disney. The trees are dressed in hundreds of white lights that twinkle on and off. And the castle is covered in (I'm guessing) millions of lights, giving it the appearance of being covered in icicles. Here is a picture - it's not too clear, unfortunately.

Also in Richmond, VA: the Powhite Parkway. Not sure how that is correctly pronounced!

We were blessed to have outstanding weather the whole time we were there. We did a lot of swimming in the pool/ocean and walking on the beach. This is the second time we have stayed in this particular condo. It could not be more convenient. It is on the ground floor and the sliding doors open out on the the pool and patio. The beach is just a few steps beyond. We are real "beach lovers" so this is truly a dream come true for us, to open up the door and walk right out onto the beach.

I have to say, I find the sheer amount of processed and packaged foods that are available at the grocery store to be mind boggling. We do not have nearly the selection up here. Plus, it always cracks me up that you can buy beer and wine at the grocery store (or drug store, gas station, etc.)! Oh, another thing that cracked me up - in the drug stores they sell the stop smoking aids right beside the cigarettes! Kind of ironic, don't you think? (In Canada you can't buy booze at the grocery store and it's illegal to sell smokes at the drugstore.)

As you are probably aware, the space shuttle launch did not go off and was postponed until January. We were not aware that there was a launch scheduled until 2 days before it was supposed to go off and we were so excited about the possibility of seeing it! You can see Cape Canaveral really well from the beach and we were planning on going over to the pier to take it in. The Cocoa Beach Pier, which is normally pretty quiet that time of year, was PACKED by about noon the day of the launch. There were people tailgating in the parking lot and others camped out on the beach. The "Tiki Bar" at the end of the pier was filled to capacity with people waiting to see the launch. There was a real festive atmosphere about the place. Our condo was just two down from the pier so it made for some fun people watching even if we didn't get to see the shuttle launch.

Well those are just some random memories/observations. The week went by so fast, I really should have taken the time to jot down things as I thought of them! But I have to say, this was my favourite vacation ever!